Pennsylvania to add 70 mph speed limit to nearly 800 miles

Pennsylvania’s highway miles posted at 70 miles per hour will multiply to nearly 1,000.

State transportation officials said Monday that they will begin adding 70 mph signs to 396 additional miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and 400 additional miles of five state highways.

That’s in addition to about 200 miles where the speed limit rose to 70 in 2014.

Roadways that will get the new 70 mile-per-hour signs include sections of I-79, I-80, US 15, I-99 and I-380. The speed limit will rise on all remaining sections of the turnpike system that are now posted at 65 miles per hour, including extensions in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Areas that didn’t qualify for the increase had crash histories, work zones, heavy or weaving traffic or other characteristics that made a higher limit unsafe.