The marathon drive to complete the Mon-Fayette Expressway passed an important hurdle last week when the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission approved the project's revised financial plan.
Coming on a near-unanimous voice vote, the endorsement by the seven-county planning body was necessary for the $4 billion, 100-mile network of toll roads to move ahead.
While the plan carries no funding, per se, it's a blueprint that lays out the revised cost and the prospective sources of the final $2.5 billion (including bond issues that will be necessary over the next 20 years).
The Southern Beltway, which will follow the Allegheny-Washington county line to Pittsburgh International Airport, represents 30 miles of the construction. More advanced are the other 70 miles - the Mon-Fayette roadway that, once completed, will head north from West Virginia through the Mon Valley, then split at the Monongahela River near Duquesne, with one spur headed Downtown and the other to Monroeville.
Though little-seen at the moment by Pittsburghers, the Mon-Fayette Expressway already has 20 miles in service, with another 17 miles set to touch down this spring in southern Allegheny County. That's progress for the highway's builder, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, but the construction is about to enter its most sensitive and contentious phase -- the 24 miles that will extend north from Jefferson Hills.
Some critics are concerned about how the highway will connect at Second Avenue below Oakland. Others are worried about what its route along the north bank of the Mon River will mean for the Summerset at Frick Park housing development at the top of the hill. Others want no new highway links to Pittsburgh whatsoever.
Last year Mayor Tom Murphy issued a series of enhancements he'd like to see incorporated if the highway is to connect ultimately with the city. While turnpike officials should resist any list of non-negotiable demands, we agree with the mayor that great care must be taken to make the highway dovetail usefully with city neighborhoods.
As construction draws nearer to Pittsburgh, the Mon-Fayette Expressway's benefits loom ever larger.
It's the alternate route that thousands of frustrated Parkway East/Squirrel Hill Tunnel drivers have longed for. It's the arrival of highway access (finally) for the economically devastated Mon Valley, with the prospect of replanting jobs and businesses there. It's the chance to get through-traffic off city streets like Second Avenue in Hazelwood and Fifth Avenue in the East End.
With construction moving along and a new financial plan in play, the talk should focus not on whether to bring in the expressway, but how.
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