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O'Connor touts northern expressway route Will urge Murphy to end opposition to road alignment Tuesday, March 17, 1998 By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
City Council President Bob O'Connor plans to "take the pulpit" at today's council meeting to urge Mayor Murphy to work with regional leaders, the state Turnpike Commission and Gov. Ridge's office to resolve the mayor's concerns about the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
"I was disappointed when I read about his stance" in Sunday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, O'Connor said yesterday. "I look forward to working with him . . . trying to change his mind."
Murphy has said repeatedly that he opposes current plans for the toll road alignment on the north bank of the Monongahela River past Duck Hollow and Nine Mile Run and through Glenwood and Hazelwood. He said he thought the alignment for a four-lane divided highway would adversely impact economic development projects and jobs they would provide.
The mayor reiterated those objections in an interview in Harrisburg yesterday, when he said he was not opposed to the "northern alignment" as long as his concerns were addressed.
"I am sincerely interested in trying to see this through," Murphy said, adding that he was worried about the impact on a residential development in Nine Mile Run, a new coke plant envisioned at the former LTV site in Hazelwood and the Weinberg Terrace assisted-living center on Bartlett Street.
"If these (issues) are not satisfactorily resolved, our support would be very problematic," Murphy said.
He said he would not "roll over" or be bullied by the "turnpike mouthpieces."
Planners are becoming more specific about the route for the 24 miles in the northern section of the highway from Route 51 in Jefferson to Pittsburgh and Monroeville. It is the most expensive section of a 65-mile road following the Mon River corridor from the city south through Washington and Fayette counties, ending at Interstate 68 in West Virginia.
"It's a very important project for the city and the region, and we have to keep moving it forward," O'Connor said.
Council gave its unanimous approval Oct. 7 to building the expressway along the northern shore of the Mon River. The resolution stipulated that turnpike officials incorporate design features providing river access, noise barriers, landscaping, special lighting, architectural amenities and elevated sections.
O'Connor said yesterday that "I stuck my neck out" endorsing the project as representative of Council District 5, where much of the city portion is proposed.
Murphy's stance on one of the most expensive highway projects in the United States, and the only new road on the drawing board in Allegheny County, irked Ridge to the point that his staff has shifted out of the city the location for "a major announcement" about the project.
The announcement, which will deal with funding of the expressway and the related Southern Beltway to Pittsburgh International Airport, was to have been at the Pittsburgh Technology Center near Hazelwood. It will now be made at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the City Center of Duquesne, in the heart of the Mon Valley, where the project has strong support.
Murphy has said an expressway at the foot of the Browns Hill slag dump could jeopardize a $250 million, 700-unit housing development at Nine Mile Run with noise and pollution. O'Connor said the expressway would alleviate the traffic in neighborhoods by serving as a bypass of the Squirrel Hill Tunnels on the congested Parkway East.
And while Murphy said an expressway through Hazelwood would jeopardize plans for a state-of-art coke plant to replace one that LTV recently closed, O'Connor said the highway could be designed to enhance the site and expand the Pittsburgh Technology Center as well.
Murphy, though, said yesterday, "If you build a road there . . . that removes some of the land."
Asked if he would prefer the land or several hundred new jobs the plant could create, he said, "I would rather have the jobs."
Staff writer Peter J. Shelly contributed to this article.
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