The cantilevered portion of Route 248-145 south of Palmerton was opened Monday and is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania and one of the few utilizing this engineering principle in the United States.

The highway is attracting national attention because 960 feet of it is cantilevered, suspended 25 feet above the base of the Blue Mountain at the point where the Lehigh River cuts through the mountain to form the Lehigh Water Gap on the Carbon-Northampton County line.

Because the road surface contained only enough room for two lanes to carry northbound traffic, engineers solved the problem by hanging the northbound lanes from the side of the mountain to partially “roof” the southbound lanes.