Measures approved to rename roads, bridges in Washington, Greene after departed heroes
A late Greene County sheriff, a Brownsville serviceman who died in World War II and a highway patrolman killed in the line of duty two days after Christmas in 1929 will have local bridges, interchanges and portions of roads named in their honor.
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously approved a measure this week that will make a bridge on Waynesburg’s South Porter Street the Sheriff Brian A. Tennant Memorial Bridge. Tennant died in 2019 at age 35. The same bill will also name the interchange linking the Mon-Fayette Expressway with U.S. Route 40 in Fayette County’s Redstone Township after Joseph Frank Duda. Duda, a Brownsville resident, served in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II and died in the line of duty on Jan. 9, 1944. In Brownsville, the interchange of U.S. Route 40 with State Route 4035 will be known as the Cpl. Denny Ray Easter Memorial Interchange. Easter was killed in the line of duty in the Vietnam War on Jan. 31, 1971.
Also this week, the Pennsylvania Senate approved a measure that would name Exit 17 on Interstate 70 in the city of Washington as the Sgt. Russell Crupe Jr. Memorial Exit. Crupe served two years of active duty in the U.S. Navy and six years as a member of the Army National Guard and Army Reserves. He died in 2012 at age 32.
The measure also names a section of State Route 50 in Mount Pleasant Township after Brady Clement Paul, a highway patrolman who was killed in the line of duty after setting up a roadblock near New Castle on Dec. 27, 1929. The bill also calls for the Morgan Road Bridge over Interstate 79 in Cecil Township to be named the Wreaths Across America Bridge. The Wreaths Across America campaign has volunteers placing wreaths on the graves of veterans at Christmastime. The bridge is adjacent to the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies, which hosts a large Wreaths Across America event every year.