A wayfarer sign advertising "Attraction" on I-79 helps guide motorists to the Christ Church at Grove Farm, a mile from the Mount Nebo exit.

"What happened to the separation of church and state in Pennsylvania?" asked Dave Green, of Mt. Lebanon. "I'm not anti-church. Just anti-favoritism."

Hmmmm.

That wasn't us, PennDOT District 11 Executive Dan Cessna said.

"I investigated and found the sign was installed through the Logo Trust program. We do not process or approve applications for their signs, but I suspect [the church] likely met the requirements for an attraction due to the number of visitors for a variety of public functions."

The special signing program was established years ago, originally for food, fuel and lodging facilities at limited-access interchanges. It is administered by the Pennsylvania Tourism and Lodging Association on behalf of PennDOT -- but not by PennDOT -- as a service to the traveling public. However, the signs must meet certain requirements established by highway engineers, such as size and placement.

You've no doubt seen the roadside and ramp signs thousands of times, not only for fast-food joints, gas and motels but increasingly more for special attractions such as campgrounds, fairgrounds, museums and performing arts centers.

In 2001, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Signing Trust was established as an adjunct to the statewide organization, overseeing specific attractions and tourists sites in Westmoreland, Fayette and Somerset counties and parts of Washington and Allegheny counties.

All participants pay a "buy-in fee" to place their names on signs, plus a yearly maintenance fee.

The program permits "religious sites" and "places of worship" as long as they meet certain qualifications, including an average-number-of-visitors factor.

Christ Church of Grove Farm says it's "a rapidly growing, nondenominational Protestant church of approximately 1,000 households" attracting people from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. It has developed facilities on a 46-acre tract, the former Grove Farm in Ohio Township, near Sewickley.

The 8-foot-wide sign with an arrow pointing to the I-79/Mount Nebo Exit and a "1" representing the distance to the church grounds cost $1,425. The church and others in the wayfarer program then pay an annual maintenance fee, currently $237.

The more widespread signing program for food, fuel and lodging costs businesses an initial fee of $7,000 to have a logo placed on one of those familiar blue signs along major highways and $250 for a follow-up ramp sign. The annual maintenance costs for those are $288 and $146, respectively.

As for the separation of church and state, "Getting Around" isn't out to make that an issue. Travel any main road and you'll see many crosses, church signs and religious-oriented billboards of every faith on private rights of way. Drive on any secondary road or local street and you'll pass more of the same.

But if you've wondered about those special tourism, public service and travel-related business signs, now you know.

For more info, go to www.palogo.org.

Riding the left lane David Nemcsik, of Franklin Park, has dealt with road construction for several years while driving I-79 through Allegheny County.

"Why do they make the trucks get in the left lane?" he asked. "I've seen this on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as well and thought there must be a reasonable explanation."

There is.

PennDOT doesn't want buses, dump trucks or 18-wheelers driving on road shoulders, which often serve as a second travel lane when traffic is shifted, because they weren't built to carry big loads and take repeated poundings.

In some places, there are only a few inches of asphalt laid on top of gravel. Ergo, in order to maintain two lanes of traffic and keep impatient motorists on the move, PennDOT restricts heavyweight vehicles to the structurally sufficient regular lane.

Nine-hour delay Think you're tied up long when there's a major accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike or when a tractor-trailer crosses the median, crashes and blocks the eastbound lanes of I-70 in Claysville, which is what happened Friday morning?

Paul Martin, of Munhall, and his wife were heading for a beach vacation two weeks ago today when they encountered traffic resulting from a fatal accident on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, where a truck crashed through a barrier and landed in the water around 4 a.m.

"It was 11:30 a.m. when we ran into the backup," he said. "Fortunately, we had just gotten gas, because we sat in traffic for over nine hours to cover what turned out to be 14 miles. To add insult to injury, the Bay Bridge Authority continued to collect the $2.50 toll instead of waving traffic through and clearing the miles of backed-up traffic."

While the turnpike and PennDOT don't have the greatest record dealing with such situations, Mr. Martin said, "Maryland has lots to learn."