Remember When: Route 56 got its start in 1928 in New Kensington

It certainly doesn’t have the controversial history or glamour the Route 28 Expressway has, but Route 56 is an important artery of the eastern side of the Allegheny River.

Route 56 begins its 108-mile trek from New Kensington to Bedford at the foot of the Ninth Street Bridge, officially known as the C.L. Schmitt Bridge.

The highway got its start in 1928 as a two-lane road in downtown New Kensington, up Locust Street where it met Freeport Road and headed toward the then-rural Leechburg Road in Lower Burrell Township.

The road then headed through Allegheny Township on Shearsburg Road and LaBelle Vue Road — popularly known as “The Serpentine Road” — into Vandergrift and beyond.

But after World War II and when more families needed automobiles to get around as Lower Burrell and, later, Allegheny Township developed, old 56 became outmoded.

Also, Allegheny Ludlum Steel of Brackenridge, now known as ATI, transported steel rolls and other materials from its Brackenridge works to West Leechburg via the two-lane road through Lower Burrell.

The Allegheny Ludlum truck drivers often would have to veer slightly off the side of the road when another vehicle traveled in the opposite direction. Something had to be done.

Plans then were unveiled for the Route 56 Bypass that would be a limited-access, four-lane artery that would avoid mainstream Lower Burrell, which then was developing at a quick pace. Lower Burrell’s population nearly tripled between 1945 and 1955.

Route 56 was and is concurrent to PA Route 366 for a time on Stevenson Boulevard, in front of Valley Junior-Senior High School. The 56 Bypass started when the cloverleaf near Memorial Park was finished in 1955. Work progressed along the Little Pucketa Creek valley and continued past Wild Life Lodge Road.

By then, the bypass had to bisect Sylvan and Vermont drives in Lower Burrell.

A house needed to be moved for the bypass to plow through in 1957. It was a far cry from the hundreds of houses that had to be saved surrounding the earlier plans for the Route 28 Expressway through East Deer and West Tarentum.

Work continued toward the Allegheny Township line. Youngwood Road was cut off to make room for the 56 bypass near Greenwood Memorial Cemetery. Youngwood Road would pick up and continue near the former Melwood Pool.

Meanwhile, the highway continued through Allegheny Township, past the Bonfire Restaurant toward the Weinel Crossroads section of the township.

The Vandergrift Bypass was built in 1970, and Route 56 was moved there from LaBelle Vue Road.

Travel time between New Kensington and Vandergrift was cut in half.

The Vandergrift Bypass, which terminates at South Leechburg Hill Road, originally was planned to go to the Freeport Bridge and connect with Route 28. But farmers and other property owners complained, and it is unlikely that extension will ever be built.

But the Route 56 Bypass led to the development of Hillcrest Shopping Center that opened in 1962 and a number of housing plans on the eastern edge of Lower Burrell and through Allegheny Township.

There actually is another Route 56 Bypass along the way.

It skirts downtown Johnstown as the road makes traveling to nearly Richland Township, Pitt-Johnstown and Windber much easier.

Toward its eastern end, Route 56 crosses over Interstate 99 and later passes under the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Route 56 ends at a “T” intersection with Route 30 in Wolfsburg, west of Bedford.