State plans highway to 9/11 crash site
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The National Park Service will award a contract this spring to build an $8.5 million two-lane access highway from Route 30 to the proposed Flight 93 memorial near Shanksville.
The 2.3-mile highway is supposed to be finished by July 2011, two months before the planned opening of the memorial on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has completed the design work for the road and will supply the money for its construction, which is in the process of being transferred to the federal government.
The Park Service will then advertise the work and hire the contractor.
PG MapThe highway will follow an old coal-mining road and abandoned township road to the site.
Flight 93 was on its way from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when it was hijacked near Cleveland. The plane abruptly changed course, headed for Washington, D.C., where another jetliner had already crashed into the Pentagon.
Passengers aboard Flight 93 fought with the terrorist hijackers for control of the plane, forcing it down into a reclaimed strip mine just after 10 a.m. The 40 passengers and crew died in the crash along with the four terrorists.
Officials broke ground for the memorial in November after the federal government reached agreements with various landowners to build a $60 million park.
Plans call for a "sacred ground" area where the plane crashed. A plaza of concrete and black granite will allow visitors to walk to the edge of the site, but only family members and park officials will able to enter.
The names of the 40 passengers and crew members will be engraved in white marble on a wall.
A second phase will include the creation of 40 memorial tree groves, and a third phase will include a tower with 40 wind chimes to be built near Route 30.
Half of the total price tag is slated to come from private donations. Taxpayers will pick up the rest.
Donations are being accepted online at www.honorflight93.org.
First Published March 30, 2010 12:00 am
