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Thursday, March 21, 2002

By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

An advocacy group focusing on urban policy, land use and quality-of-life issues wants the Pennsylvania Turnpike to conduct further studies on a 24-mile northern section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway to Pittsburgh and Monroeville.

Sustainable Pittsburgh disclosed the request yesterday in a meeting with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's editorial board.

The request comes two months before the turnpike is supposed to release a voluminous, draft environmental impact study that has been years in the making and that the federal government must ultimately approve before construction of the estimated $2 billion section of toll road can begin.

Court Gould, director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, and Jim DeAngelis, its consultant, said more information should be provided in order for the public to better understand community, economic and other impacts of such a major project.

"The Mon-Fayette Expressway touches all aspects of the region's well-being, so it is an appropriate project for us to assess," he said. "Our intent is to raise issues in advance of the [turnpike environmental] study that the public should expect answered."

Gould denied Sustainable Pittsburgh opposes the expressway outright, but he predicted the project would have devastating effects on Turtle Creek and the city neighborhoods of Duck Hollow and Hazelwood.

He said the group feels transit such as light-rail, improving existing roads and urban design concepts should get more attention in the study. It also wants more answers about development, traffic volumes, local congestion and riverfront preservation.

"The [study] process has flaws," DeAngelis claimed, and may not comply with the latest federal requirements for evaluating highway projects for approval. "New things have come into being since planning began a decade ago."

The so-called "northern section" triggering public debate starts at Route 51 in Jefferson Hills, where a 17-mile Mon Valley section will be opened to traffic April 12. The limited-access highway is to go through West Mifflin to Duquesne, then split into a Y, with one leg following the Turtle Creek Valley to Monroeville and the other leg following the north shore of the Mon River through Braddock and Hazelwood into Pittsburgh.

Even if the turnpike had community consensus and money to build the northern section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, construction of such a complex civil engineering project would still be years away. After winning federal environmental approval, the turnpike must do final design, acquire property, relocate utilities and deal with four different railroads before starting to build bridges, ramps and the toll road itself.

Here are several points made by Sustainable Pittsburgh in its assessment:

* The Pennsylvania Turnpike may not have paid more attention to transit because state law limits it to one mission: Build and administer toll roads.

* Although the turnpike cites community revitalization and economic stimulus as a top need for the expressway, it hasn't prepared a relevant economic study to support the outcome, including projected job growth and new business starts.

* The stretch from Route 51 to Duquesne (Route 837) affords economic potential to several "brownfield" sites, but expressway "spurs" are needed to access and improve those sites in the Glassport, McKeesport and Duquesne areas.

* The expressway as a bypass of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel will move traffic congestion to other areas of the Parkway East, especially inbound in the morning rush hours, but the turnpike's consultants have not explained these impacts or those on local and arterial streets.

The Sustainable Pittsburgh Assessment can be read in its entirety on the Web at www.sustainablepittsburgh.org.