PennDot on PAStarNet

[policefreak]

So I am enjoying listening to the Philly Area Towing roadside patrols on TGID 11904. I noticed a similar talkgroup listed for the Harrisburg area on TGID 11208. When I last stayed in Lancaster I programmed that talkgroup in out of the Cornwall site and I did not hear anything on a weekday morning. I'm thinking there are Roadside patrols along 283, 30, I-83, and 222 in Lancaster?

Also back to the Philly area I notice sometimes even during rush hour PennDot has roving crews along I-76 and I-95 which can really cause backlog. Can they be heard on the Crew Maintenance talkgroups and would I even understand what I am listening to? Do they put out over the radio locations they set up at?

Last but not least I notice these PA Turnpike link talkgroups. Are any of these active on any of the sites? Between the Philly area sites and Cornwall I have yet to hear anything on it.

 

[u2brent]

I've heard Safety Patrols on 11208, but they are only used around the Capitol Region Interstates.
Not Lancaster, that I've heard. Lancaster trucks use their own 11500-11505 TG's, and yes I've heard the Philly trucks on theirs as well, 11604-11608, or they pop up on 11203, 11845, 11852, 11902, 11906. I keep all the DOT TG's in my programming, they can pop up anywhere they feel like it.. Even something far away from where they are intended. I frequently here District 1 on Truce.

 

[HM1529]

PennDOT can be a bit exhausting to monitor. Other than the Philly area roadway patrols, I don't pay a ton of attention to them. Yes, you can probably hear the crews causing traffic backups, but you'd have to suffer through all the F bombs, screams, rants, etc to try to parse out where there were. And, that's only if somebody wasn't paying attention when they briefed on the work to be done before they got on the road. Usually, they all know where they are going, so there's not going to be a ton of descriptive, identifying language about their location. But, that kinda just depends on what they are doing.

As far as the Harrisburg area patrols go, PennDOT is not particularly good about advertising these services in Philly, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, or Reading. I think they might have patrols in the Lehigh Valley now, too? I'm not sure about that, though.

The contract bid language in this document describes where they patrol in the Harrisburg area...basically the Capitol Beltway highways. https://www.emarketplace.state.pa.us/FileDownload.aspx?file=6100061721/Solicitation_0.pdf&OriginalFileName=Exhibit B - SOW SUB Capitol Beltway Safety Patrol Final - 2024.pdf

It also has the hours of service for the Harrisburg area work. For the Philly area, they greatly expanded hours of service in 2025 based on positive feedback from the public and emergency services and are now 24 hours on some sections of roadway in metro Philly. Again, since they don't put anything online about this service, it's hard to pin down details other than piecing things together from multiple sources.

Since PennDOT has something like 900 possible talkgroups and simplex channels, and the fact the crews sometimes like to "hide from the boss", they really can pop up anywhere...even on talkgroups they should not be using like county interop talkgroups and the global interop talkgroups.

 

[HM1529]

I scraped this together to memorialize in the wiki:

Department of Transportation (PennDOT) (PA) - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

If anybody gets more detail, feel free to update it.

 

[One13Truck]

Depending on your view fortunately or unfortunately I hear very little in the northeast part of the state on the state system as a whole since the game commission went dark. An occasional regional or statewide transmission or monthly test. Snow season can randomly bring out the plows. Sometimes. But not all the time. I keep the state scanning for all the TGs not any preprogrammed but I’m sure I also miss a lot with it being a secondary priority to monitor.

 

[policefreak]

I scraped this together to memorialize in the wiki:

Department of Transportation (PennDOT) (PA) - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

If anybody gets more detail, feel free to update it.

Thank you, thank you! Some excellent information in that wiki. I do hear a VS-2 unit near Philadelphia on I-95 or I-76 so I have to figure out what that is. Unfortunately I use those roads daily. Anything that can give me a heads up on potential trouble ahead is a huge help. Last week I-76 the Schuykill Expressway had a major incident where a truck dropped a box of nails on the road and dozens of vehicles behind it got flat tires. So it's more than just waiting in traffic. I am also trying to figure out some coverage mysteries. Like why the "Philadelphia" site gets weak and garbly on I-95/I-76 interchange by the stadiums, yet I can hear Bucks County VHF site from my home in interior NJ.🤷‍♂️