This article was originally published by the Chesapeake Bay Journal, an award-winning nonprofit news organization that has been covering environmental issues in the Bay region for more than 30 years.
Each summer, motorists traveling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as it passes south of Harrisburg will see a burst of blooms. Purple coneflowers, oxeye sunflowers, wild bergamots and many more nectar-producing flowers blanket the roadside below the Turnpike Commission’s headquarters there.
In 2022, the commission established this pollinator habitat across 1.72 acres, divided into four test plots — each planted with a unique mix of wildflowers that together can support pollinators through their entire life cycles. They also seeded more plots on nearly six acres at the Hickory Run Service Plaza on the turnpike’s northeast extension (Interstate 476) in Carbon County.
In the years since, they’ve added plots at five more locations along the turnpike, reaching a total of nearly 25 acres of land planted primarily with flowers and grasses native to Pennsylvania and the surrounding region.
The goal is to identify which mixes of seed best support pollinators, survive deer browsing and thrive with minimal maintenance. They’ll then use the most promising mixes to convert more of their 565 miles of roadside land into pollinator habitat.
“One seed mix won’t fix everything across the state, [which has] different hardiness zones and elevations,” said Brady Pnacek, a stormwater management specialist at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and manager of the program.
Upon opening in 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was celebrated as America’s first superhighway. Now, the commission is adding these wildflowers — along with EV charging stations, solar panels and more — in an effort to achieve a new distinction by its 100th birthday: America’s first sustainable superhighway.
“Sustainability is really baked into everything we do. It’s a core part of our strategic plan. It’s a core part of our values and our vision,” said Leslie Gervasio, director of communications for the commission and co-chair of its sustainability committee.
The idea for the pollinator habitat project dates to 2019, when the commission tasked a team of college interns with developing a way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs associated with regular mowing.
Establishing the pollinator habitats costs around $4,000 to nearly $8,000 per acre. But over time, planners say, that cost is recovered in savings from less frequent mowing.
Since establishing the pollinator habitats, the commission has worked with consultants to regularly survey the plots. In 2025, they surveyed plants and pollinators monthly from May through October. This year, they’ll also use drones to capture aerial images of plant cover.
They also work with collaborators, such as PennDOT, to share good ideas and discuss challenges. In 2022, for example, they began trials with a PennDOT wildflower mix at several locations.
Already, they’ve learned some lessons. Hand-pulling the invasive species that inevitably move into plots proved too time-intensive. So the commission transitioned to targeted herbicide applications.
One seed mix included too many grasses — it resulted in fewer flowers each year as the grasses outcompeted their showier neighbors.
And plots can take years to reach their full potential. Back in 2022, the commission spread the seeds of blue false indigo along with 31 other species in a single plot at the Harrisburg-west interchange. But the plant didn’t germinate until last summer. “Not everything blooms that first year,” said Pnacek. “But if they’re given the right conditions, they’ll show up eventually.”
The pollinators show up, too, especially at sites filled with open flowers. Last year, surveyors observed more than 30 pollinating species in the Allentown Service Plaza’s 7.5-acre pollinator habitat seeded in 2024, including carpenter bees and many butterfly species.
But at another site established in 2024 near a turnpike salt shed in Fulton County, few pollinators arrived, likely because the initial seed mix leaned more toward native grasses than flowers.
Highway managers in the U.S. have planted wildflowers along roadsides for decades, funded since 1965 by the Highway Beautification Act.
The commission is also pursuing other strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In a 2021 pilot project, they installed a solar microgrid to power a maintenance facility in Westmoreland County, reducing its carbon footprint and saving an estimated $450,000 in annual energy costs. Given its success, the commission is pursuing what CEO Mark Compton calls a “complete solar strategy.”
The commission has since installed a microgrid to power its 27,000-square-foot Western Regional Office in New Stanton and is currently installing solar panels on the roof of the headquarters building near Harrisburg. They’re planning additional solar installations for three more maintenance facilities and the Blue Mountain and Kittatinny Mountain tunnels.
By the end of this year, the administration building will have a solar canopy in the parking lot that will power an EV charging station. The station will showcase some of the most promising wireless, or inductive, charging technologies that might one day power cars along the turnpike. Eight of the turnpike’s service plazas already have universal, or “agnostic,” plug-in charging stations, and all 17 plazas will have them by the end of this year, for a total of more than 140 chargers.
EV purchases have slowed, but there are still more on the road every year, said Compton. “We’re foreseeing the demand in the future.”
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is still working out how exactly it will become America’s “first sustainable superhighway” — a term it coined.
“What does it mean? How do we get there?” communications director Gervasio asked. In the coming months, she and the rest of the sustainability committee will develop a formal plan that prioritizes the planet, people and profit, and aligns with the United Nations’ 17 goals for sustainable development.
Already, the commission’s efforts are being recognized. It is the only state agency to have received a perfect score on the Pennsylvania GreenGov Council’s Certification Checklist for sustainability guidelines. And they’ve achieved that score for the past four years in a row.
“[The GreenGov Council raises] the bar every year,” CEO Compton said, “which tells you we continue to raise the bar.”