About

About the TOPP Trail

In 1968, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission bypassed the Ray’s and Sidling Hill tunnels and 11 miles of pike. This section was built on what was formerly property of the South Pennsylvania Railroad, and some of the grades and tunnel work date from the 1880's.

After being bypassed, this section highway was occasionally used by the Turnpike Commission to train snow plow drivers, prototype rumble strips, road reflectors, reflective road pant, do vehicle crash, roll over, truck brake distance, road sign distance visibility tests and also for storage of jersey barriers.

In 2001, the Turnpike Commission sold the property to the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy (SAC), a Land Trust organization preserving the environment in South Western and South Central Pennsylvania, covering Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon, and Somerset counties. 

In 2018, Bedford and Fulton Counties created a Municipal Authority, the Bedford Fulton Joint Recreation Authority (BFJRA), to assume ownership and management of the property, and SAC sold the property to the BFJRA. The Master Plan was updated, and the TOPP Trail (The Old PA Pike) name was chosen for the property.

In September 2023, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) announced a $358,000 grant, matched by the PA Department of Community and Economic Development for a total of $717,000, for the first phase of revitalization work. It is expected that that will begin in the first half of 2025.