State Route 1002 (Lehigh County, Pennsylvania)

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State Route 1002
Main Street; Tilghman Street; Union Boulevard
]
Route information
Maintained by PennDOT
Length	13.8 mi (22.2 km)
Existed	1987–present
Major junctions
Major intersections	US 22 near Kuhnsville PA 309 in South Whitehall Township PA 145 in Allentown

Location
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
Counties	Lehigh

Highway system
Pennsylvania State Route System Interstate US State Scenic Legislative

Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard, also known as Old Route 22, is a major east-west road in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The majority of the roadway is the former alignment of U.S. Route 22, maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation as State Route 1002 (SR 1002). This is a Quadrant Route, and is not signed except on small white segment markers.

Tilghman Street begins at Pennsylvania Route 100 in Fogelsville, though SR 1002 continues west on Main Street (also old US 22) to the intersection of Church Street (SR 3014). It becomes Union Boulevard just east of the bridge over the Lehigh River in Allentown; SR 1002 ends at the interchange with Pennsylvania Route 378 in Bethlehem. Union Boulevard continues over Monocacy Creek, which forms the border between Lehigh and Northampton Counties, and ends in downtown Bethlehem.

Route description

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Tilghman Street

SR 1002 starts as Tilghman Street at PA Route 100, where it continues as State Route 3014 (Main Street) Tilghman Street divides into two carriageways when interchanging U.S. Route 22. West-bound Tilghman Street is used only for U.S. Route 22 West. The east-bound of Tilghman Street uses U.S. Route 22 East. The same thing occurs for ramps coming off Route 22. East of US 22 Tilghman Street turns local and there's an entrance to the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Interstate 476.

East of the ramps, SR 1002 crosses above the Pennsylvania Turnpike and then interchanges with PA Route 309. One mile east of that intersection, there is an intersection with Cedar Crest Boulevard. Tilghman Street enters Allentown, where it crosses more than 30 major streets in the city.

Communities
Fogelsville Kuhnsville Cetronia Allentown Bethlehem

Tilghman Street is a fast route in Allentown, where the traffic lights give cars on Tilghman Street substantially more time to cross. Where Tilghman Street reaches the more populated part of the city, it intersects the 6th and 7th street one-way couplet forming Pennsylvania Route 145. From there, it uses the Tilghman Street Bridge to cross the Jordan Creek and American Parkway that run below. It then reaches Front Street, where it crosses the second bridge and becomes Union Boulevard. Tilghman Street is still found in east-side Allentown, but it is not connected to the fast route the street uses in west-side and center city Allentown.

Union Boulevard

East of Front Street, the Tilghman Street designation of SR 1002 ends and becomes Union Boulevard while crossing the Lehigh River on a concrete span bridge called the Tilghman Street Viaduct. East of the bridge, the alignment of SR 1002 changes to the northeast while encountering numerous streets in the eastern section of Allentown. East of Dauphin Street, Union Boulevard is four lanes wide with a 35 mile per hour speed limit. After intersecting Fenwick Street, SR 1002 changes to a solid east alignment.

East of Fenwick Street, SR 1002 meets with Airport Road and Irving Street. Airport Road is the main road to Lehigh Valley International Airport. Briefly east of Airport Road, Union Boulevard narrows to two lanes, while traversing the other streets of east Allentown. After passing Club Avenue, SR 1002 has entered the city of Bethlehem from the west as West Union Boulevard. 1,500 feet east of Club Avenue, Eaton Avenue merges onto the SR 1002 designation.

SR 1002 leaves Eaton Avenue to makes a 45 degree angle turn and continue as West Union Boulevard. East of the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue, SR 1002 makes a wide turn to the south and makes another turn to continue eastward. East of 8th Avenue, SR 1002 interchanges with PA Route 378. Motorists on Union Boulevard rely on 3rd Avenue to get to PA 378 south. Closely east of PA 378, SR 1002 terminates while crossing the Monocacy Creek and leaving Lehigh County. The designation continues as W. Union Boulevard into the eastern sections of Bethlehem in Northampton County.

Bridges

SR 1002 has four bridges in the desgination. In 1929, two concrete bridges were built near the intersection with Dauphin Street. The shortest bridge was east of Dauphin Street on Union Boulevard. The bridge passes over an abandoned railroad and the bridge is in good condition at the moment. The Tilghman Street Viaduct was the longest of the two bridges and was reconstructed in 1995. The bridge crosses the Lehigh River and the Corman Railroad at a length of 422 meters. The bridges averaged a daily traffic of 21,706 vehicles a day in 2004.

In 1936, a concrete-arch bridge was built on Tilghman Street west of Cedar Crest Boulevard in South Whitehall Township. The bridge became the second unnamed bridge on SR 1002. With a length of 18 meters, it is the shortest bridge on SR 1002. Today, SR 1002 passes over the Little Cedar Creek and a local road on the bridge.

The Tilghman Street Bridge was the most recent bridge and it was built in 1986. The bridge is a 213 meter long concrete structure over the Jordan Creek and American Parkway. In 2004, the bridge average 13,129 vehicles a day.

History

When the state began taking over state highways through the Sproul Road Bill, signed May 31, 1911, this system did not include the direct Allentown-Harrisburg route that Interstate 78 and the parallel Tilghman Street now form part of. The main route to Harrisburg, which would soon become the William Penn Highway, left Allentown further south, on Hamilton Boulevard (now Pennsylvania Route 222 and U.S. Route 222); the portion near Allentown was Legislative Route 157 (LR 157). Another route west from Allentown (LR 163, later U.S. Route 309) ran northwest from Allentown via Walbert Avenue to Schnecksville. Travelers could continue via New Tripoli to Lenhartsville, and then along a route approximating the present I-78 to Harrisburg. From Allentown east to downtown Bethlehem, LR 159 used Hanover Avenue and Broad Street. No state highways existed within the city limits of Allentown.

The William Penn Highway was organized as an alternative to the Lincoln Highway, paralleling the Pennsylvania Railroad west of Harrisburg. The route's New York Extension, adopted in 1916, passed through Allentown. The state assigned the Pennsylvania Route 3 designation to this road in 1924, and in 1926 it became part of U.S. Route 22. The road west from Allentown, now College Heights Boulevard, Broadway, Tilghman Street, and Main Street, was designated LR 443 in 1925, and soon the entire shortcut between Allentown and Harrisburg was designated Pennsylvania Route 43. The New York Times was recommending use of this cutoff by early 1931 and the American Association of State Highway Officials officially moved US 22 to PA 43 on June 8, 1931. The Pennsylvania Department of Highways moved the William Penn Highway name to match.

Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard (then Union Street) were once local streets in Allentown and Bethlehem, with no bridge over the Lehigh River connecting them. Allentown built that bridge in 1929, and the two cities built Union Boulevard east from the bridge into West Bethlehem.

Prior to 1931, there were no state highways in Allentown or a number of other major cities in the state. However, the state did define paths through these cities for the public; in Allentown, US 22 used Hamilton Street, and PA 43 entered on Liberty Street and turned south on 17th Street to reach Hamilton Street. The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed, on June 22, 1931, a law defining state highways through these cities and changing routes in other cities. LR 443 was defined to use College Heights Boulevard and Tilghman Street to 15th Street, where LR 157 continued along Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard to the Allentown-Bethlehem line. LR 159 was redefined to begin at the same point, continuing on Union Boulevard to Main Street in downtown Bethlehem (and beyond to Easton). The newest part of Tilghman Street includes the bridge over Little Cedar Creek in Trexler Park west of Cedar Crest Boulevard, which dates to 1936, and bypasses the older route via Broadway and College Heights Boulevard. Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard became a major long-distance traffic route, and as of 1999 had eight diners as a reminder of this past importance.

In addition to US 22, Tilghman Street also carried U.S. Route 309 and Pennsylvania Route 29 between 19th Street and Seventh Street. They were moved from Hamilton Street with US 22 in 1931, and to a freeway bypass of Allentown in the late 1950s. The Lehigh Valley Thruway, a freeway taking US 22 around Allentown and Bethlehem to the north, was opened on September 21, 1954. With the opening of these two highways, and the western extension of the Thruway in the late 1950s, no signed Traffic Routes remained on Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard, yet the road was still state maintained. It still carried LR 443, LR 157, and LR 159 through the cities, since the Thruway was assigned a new number - LR 772 - but west of the crossing at Kuhnsville LR 443 was moved to the freeway, and the old route became LR Old 443, later LR 443 Parallel.

The road west of Church Street in Fogelsville, which was also a state highway (LR 39084), was removed from the state highway system at some point. A gap in LR 159 through downtown Bethlehem was created in 1971, at the same time as Washington Avenue and Stefko Boulevard were added to the system as a bypass, with Union Boulevard east of Pennsylvania Route 378 becoming a city street. Thus, in 1987, when the new Location Referencing System was adopted, only the portion of Tilghman Street and Union Boulevard between Church Street and PA 378 was assigned a new number - State Route 1002.

Major intersections

County	Location	mi	km	Destinations	Notes
Lehigh	Fogelsville	0.00	0.00	SR 3014
	Fogelsville	Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): street
	0.34	0.55	PA 100	Former routing of US 309.
	Kuhnsville	2.76	4.44	US 22 west	Westbound exit, westbound entrance.
	Kuhnsville	2.84	4.57	US 22 east	Eastbound exit, eastbound entrance.
	South Whitehall Township	3.38	5.44	I-476/PA Tpk	Access to I-476/PA Turnpike. No access from I-476/PA Turnpike.
		4.26	6.86	PA 309	Cloverleaf interchange. Current routing of PA 309. Former alignments of US 222 and US 309.
		Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): street
	5.73	9.22	PA 229	Former northern terminus of PA 229.
	Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): street
	Allentown	7.23	11.64	US 309/PA 29	Former western terminus of US 22/US 309/PA 29 concurrency.
		Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): street
		7.70	12.39	US 222	Former northern terminus of US 222.
		Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): street
8.46		13.62	PA 145	Current alignment of PA 145. Former eastern terminus of US 22/US 309/PA 29 concurrency.
9.50	15.29	US 22	Eastern terminus of Tilghman Street. Western terminus of Union Boulevard.
Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): street
10.61	17.08	PA 987	Former southern terminus of PA 987. Access to LVI Airport and PA 987 via Airport Road.
Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): street
Bethlehem	13.31	21.42	PA 378	Complete access to PA 378.
Bethlehem	Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): street
13.77	22.16	PA 378 north	Interchange.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi