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Tuesday, February 26, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Much to the consternation of opponents, the $4 billion Mon-Fayette Expressway/Southern Beltway project took a small step forward yesterday.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a multicounty agency overseeing regional transportation projects, voted almost unanimously to endorse an amended financing plan for the expensive road project, whose cost has doubled in the past 10 years.

The cost of the 100-mile project -- from West Virginia north to Pittsburgh and a westward leg to the airport -- has risen more than $700 million in just the past 18 months, as more detailed information about the land needed for its route through southern Allegheny County became known.

Of the $4 billion price tag, the SPC has $1.5 billion, which it has obtained largely through borrowing, but still needs $2.5 billion.

The SPC has 50 members from Allegheny and eight surrounding counties, plus officials from the city of Pittsburgh. Some of the funding comes from bonds that won't be paid off until the year 2061.

Everyone voted for the financing plan yesterday except newly elected City Councilman William Peduto, who was attending his first SPC meeting. He said many residents of the East End of the city, which he represents, are opposed to the highway, fearing it could hurt their quality of life.

Joseph Kirk of the Mon Valley Progress Council lauded the SPC vote, calling the Mon Fayette/Southern Beltway an important project that will benefit the economically struggling Mon Valley, as well as Pittsburgh and the area along the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and the Parkway East, which is often clogged with morning and afternoon traffic.

North of Route 51 in Large, the Mon-Fayette Expressway will divide into a "Y" with one segment going west through Braddock, Hazelwood and Oakland to Downtown, and the other going east to Monroeville.

Some portions of the expressway south of Route 51 in Large are already open, with more miles of road to open this spring. But no one will drive on the northern portion into Pittsburgh for another five to seven years.

That's because federal environmental studies, public hearings, detailed engineering work, property acquisition and other time-consuming projects must be completed before construction starts.

After yesterday's SPC vote, a Mon-Fayette opponent, Oakland resident Jonathan Robison, shouted to the commission, "Can't you count?"

He said the 23 miles of the project that will lie within Allegheny County will cost about $2 billion, making it one of the most expensive highway projects in history. He feared the large amount of funding that will be needed for Mon-Fayette will hurt the city's ability to get federal and state funds for other transportation projects.

Another opponent, Fran Bertonaschi of Hazelwood, said federal and state officials "won't want to give more money to the Pittsburgh region for transportation after the billions that this project will suck up."

But Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission engineer Frank Kempf vowed that wouldn't happen. He said there would be no diversion of other transportation funds to the Mon-Fayette project, which will be a toll highway and thus is under the control of the turnpike commission.

City members of the SPC board inserted a provision in the funding resolution saying that the Mon-Fayette/Southern Beltway project "would be advanced only through financing that will not diminish the amount of [state and federal] funds that could otherwise be available to the region" for transportation programs.

That provision didn't appease opponents, however. Joan Miles of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future insisted that "a tally is kept in Washington and Harrisburg" as to how much transportation funding the Pittsburgh area gets, and if $4 billion goes for one project, it can't help but hurt funding for other local projects.

Former city Planning Director Eloise Hirsh supported yesterday's funding resolution but did admit to having "some concerns" about the Mon-Fayette project. "While we support it, we support it with reservations," she said.

Her former boss, Mayor Tom Murphy, recently laid down a series of conditions that would have to be met on the portion of the road that goes through the city. He said he doesn't want the road to harm Hazelwood or other city neighborhoods or restrict the city's ability to develop along the Monongahela riverfront.