Editing Centralia, Pennsylvania (section)

====Route 61====

[[Pennsylvania Route 61]] was repaired several times until it was closed. Smoke and steam caused extensive cracking in the pavement, which led to frequent closure. The current route was formerly a detour around the damaged portion during the repairs and became a permanent route in 1993. The damaged portion of [[Pennsylvania Route 61|PA Route 61]] was abandoned, and became known as Graffiti Highway.<ref>{{cite web|title=Help Cleanup Centralia! 5th Annual Cleanup Day: October 20, 2018|url=https://www.centraliapa.org/help-cleanup-centralia-5th-annual-cleanup-day-october-20-2018/|website=centralitapa.org|date=August 21, 2018|access-date=June 5, 2019}}</ref>  Access berms were placed at both ends of the former route, effectively blocking off the area permanently to vehicular traffic. Pedestrian traffic was still possible due to small openings about two feet wide at the northern and southern terminus of the abandoned stretch of road. 

In April 2020, amidst the early part of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], the property's current owners made the decision to cover over the graffiti on the highway section of old Route 61. Several hundred mounds of dirt were laid over the area, thus ending a decades-long fascination with the desolate stretch of road.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/04/centralias-graffiti-highway-is-finally-getting-the-big-eraser.html |title=Centralia's 'Graffiti Highway' is finally getting erased |date=April 6, 2020}}</ref> [[Google Maps]] overhead satellite-view imagery copyright-dated 2023 shows the former Graffiti Highway almost entirely buried under hundreds of access-denial [[berm]]s.[https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7962779,-76.3432451,296m/data=!3m1!1e3]