The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will implement a phased closure of its Hempfield Service Plaza beginning Sunday night, Jan. 28.
Hempfield Service Plaza, which serves eastbound traffic only at Milepost 74.7 in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, is being closed permanently because of a pending total reconstruction of Interstate 76 between Irwin and New Stanton that will add a third travel lane each direction.
Food sales at Hempfield will cease at 10 p.m. Sunday. The food vendors there are McDonald’s, Oscar Meyer Hot Dog Construction Co., and Breyers Ice Cream.
The Sunoco fuel pumps at Hempfield will remain open until 9 a.m. Jan. 31.
Hempfield’s closure will create a temporary, 90-mile gap between eastbound service plazas. There will be no eastbound plazas between Zelienople at Milepost 21.7 and South Somerset at Milepost 112.3 until the remodeled and expanded Oakmont Service Plaza at Milepost 49.3 reopens around Memorial Day.
In the four-month period until the reopening of the Oakmont facilities, motorists can easily access off-Turnpike food and fuel sales by exiting at any of the seven interchanges from Cranberry (exit #28) to Donegal (exit #91).
Oakmont closed last Sept. 6 and is being rebuilt as part of a five-year, $100 million service-plaza redevelopment program by HMSHost Corp. of Bethesda, Md. under terms of a 30-year contract it was awarded last July 28.
