Pennsylvania Route 61

Pennsylvania Route 61
PA 61 mainline in red, PA 61 Truck routes in blue, and the route's abandoned section in grey
Route information
Maintained by PennDOT and Reading
Length	81.801 mi[1] (131.646 km)
Existed	1963[2]–present
Major junctions
South end	US 222 Bus. in Reading
Major intersections	PA 12 near Reading US 222 near Reading PA 73 near Leesport I-78 / US 22 near Hamburg PA 443 in Schuylkill Haven US 209 in Pottsville I-81 in Frackville PA 54 in Ashland PA 42 in Centralia PA 147 in Sunbury
North end	US 11 / US 15 / PA 147 in Shamokin Dam
Location
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
Counties	Berks, Schuylkill, Columbia, Northumberland, Snyder
Highway system
Pennsylvania State Route System Interstate US State Scenic Legislative
← PA 60 → US 62

Pennsylvania Route 61 (PA 61) is an 81.8-mile-long (131.6 km) state highway that is located in Pennsylvania in the United States. The route is signed north-south despite running in a northwest-southeast direction from U.S. Route 222 Business (US 222 Bus.) in Reading to US 11/US 15/PA 147 in Shamokin Dam.

PA 61 heads north from Reading through Berks County to Hamburg, where it meets Interstate 78 (I-78)/US 22. The route continues into the Coal Region in Schuylkill County and heads through Schuylkill Haven, Pottsville, Frackville, where it has an interchange with I-81, and Ashland.

PA 61 passes through the southern part of Columbia County, where it turns west in Centralia, before it heads into Northumberland County and runs west through Mount Carmel, Kulpmont, Shamokin, and Sunbury. The route crosses the Susquehanna River into Snyder County and soon reaches its northern terminus.

PA 61 roughly follows the alignment of the Centre Turnpike, a turnpike from Reading to Sunbury that was completed in 1814. The road between Reading and Sunbury became part of US 120 when the U.S. Highway System was created in 1926. In 1935, this section of road became part of US 122, a route than ran from US 1 in Oxford north to US 11/US 111 in Northumberland.

US 122 saw multiple upgrades and realignments in the following years. In 1963, US 122 was decommissioned and PA 61 was designated onto the former alignment of US 122 between US 222 (now US 222 Bus.) in Reading and PA 147 in Sunbury. Upgrades and realignments continued to be made to PA 61. In 1990, the route was extended north from Sunbury to US 11/US 15 in Shamokin Dam. A section of PA 61 south of Centralia was closed in 1993 after the Centralia mine fire damaged the road and made it unsafe to travel on; this section was bypassed with a realignment to a parallel road through Byrnesville. The closed section of PA 61 was used by pedestrians and bicyclists and was covered with graffiti before being blocked to public access and covered with dirt in 2020.