Great Pennsylvania Statewide Cleanup Day on April 23

Great Pennsylvania Statewide Cleanup Day on April 23

4/19/2016-KING OF PRUSSIA

Keeping our roadways as clean as possible is an ongoing challenge, and
PennDOT
relies on many volunteers during the Great America Cleanup of Pennsylvania,

which features a special cleanup day on Saturday April 23 and runs through
May
31.

During last year's Great Pennsylvania Cleanup, volunteers from across the
state
removed over 300,186 bags of litter from roadsides, enough to fill over 300

trash trucks.

This cooperative anti-littering effort, sponsored each year by PennDOT,
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Keep Pennsylvania
Beautiful and other partners, includes groups participating in PennDOT's
Adopt-A-Highway (AAH) program, which involves volunteers cleaning roadsides

year round.

"PennDOT and its volunteers join other state agencies and citizens in an
ongoing effort to beautify our communities by picking up trash from
roadsides
and neighborhood parks and recreation areas," PennDOT District Executive
Kenneth M. McClain said. "Pennsylvania continues to have one of the largest

anti-littering programs in the nation with 35 percent of PennDOT's 40,000
miles
of roadway under adoption.

"We urge citizens to keep Pennsylvania beautiful and don't throw trash on
our
highways and local streets," McClain added. "Over the past five years,
PennDOT
has spent $3.5 million annually to remove trash from state highways in the
five-county Philadelphia region. These funds could have been used to
improve
state roads and bridges that are in need of repair."

Interested individuals can find a listing of cleanup events, resources for
organizing a cleanup, and other information about the effort online at
www.gacofpa.org. Groups interested in adopting a section of highway are
encouraged to contact their local PennDOT County Maintenance office and ask
for
the AAH coordinator, or visit www.penndot.gov under "About us." Groups
interested in adopting a locally maintained road, contact Keep Pennsylvania

Beautiful, www.keeppabeautiful.org under "Keep It."

For information on the Great Pennsylvania Cleanup and to register for the
cleanup program, visit www.keeppabeautiful.org or call toll-free
1-877-772-3673
ext. 113. The site also contains safety information, links to other
cleanup
organizations, a downloadable logo, T-shirt iron-on transfers and posters,
and
lesson plans for teachers.

PennDOT's county maintenance offices in southeastern Pennsylvania have
coordinators for the GPC and AAH programs. They are:

Bucks County: Marilyn Musiowski, GPC, AAH 215.345.6060
Chester County: Joyce Lowry, GPC, AAH 484.340.3217
Delaware County: Debbie Eichler, GPC, AAH 610.566.0972
Montgomery County: Marcy Podberesky, GPC, AAH 610.275.2368
Philadelphia County: Jennifer Smith, GPC 215.225.1415
Flora Muhameta AAH

This year marks the 38th year that PennDOT and its volunteer groups will
participate in a state-wide clean-up effort by picking up litter from
roadsides, parks, schoolyards, and other areas. PennDOT provides
volunteers
with orange safety vests, gloves and garbage bags.

PennDOT enlisted the support of 110,371 volunteers statewide last year to
participate in the anti-litter effort. A year ago in southeastern
Pennsylvania, 13,345 volunteers contributed their valuable time and effort
to
this worthwhile program.

In addition to the Great Pennsylvania Cleanup, PennDOT's Adopt-A-Highway
program continues to grow and groups who participate in this program are
encouraged to use the Great Pennsylvania Cleanup for one of their annual
pick-up days.

The Adopt-A-Highway program involves individuals, groups and businesses
that
adopt a two-mile section of a highway and remove litter from it at least
four
times a year. To date, the Commonwealth has nearly 14,000 miles of state
highway under adoption.

In southeastern Pennsylvania, 336 groups have adopted 1,151 miles of state
highways. In return, PennDOT installs signs acknowledging the
participating
group at each end of the adopted roadway and provides volunteers with work
zone
signs, orange safety vests, gloves and garbage bags.

Under the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, a person can be fined up to $300 if
they
are caught littering on both public and private property.

Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles by
visiting
www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides
traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and
access
to more than 770 traffic cameras.

511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and
Android
devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional Twitter alerts
accessible
on the 511PA website.

For more PennDOT information, visit www.penndot.gov. Follow Local PennDOT
Information on Twitter at www.twitter.com/511PAPhilly, and follow the
department on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/pennsylvaniadepartmentoftransportation and Instagram at
www.instagram.com/pennsylvaniadot.

MEDIA CONTACT: Charles Metzger, 610-205-6801

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