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Wednesday, July 31, 2002

By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The environmentally friendly Sierra Club has named the Mon-Fayette Expressway as one of the nation's 28 worst transportation projects.

The 70-mile toll road was branded as a "Wrong Way" to go by the organization to the delight of other anti-sprawl groups and highway opponents yesterday at the front entrance of the City-County Building, Downtown.

At the Pittsburgh and other media conferences staged around the country, the Sierra Club also announced 20 transportation projects -- mostly public transit -- that it supports as visionary and consistent with protecting the environment.

No Pennsylvania project made the "Right Way" list, although Allegheny County's Port Authority has $900 million worth of light-rail improvements and expansion under construction or in planning.

"If we're trying to attract people to our area, the Mon-Fayette Expressway is not the way to do it," said Marilyn Skolnick, who chairs the Sierra Club's Allegheny Group transportation committee. "In addition to poor planning, there's no money to complete it."

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has estimated it will cost $2 billion to build a 24-mile, Y-shaped northern section of the expressway in Allegheny County, a section opposed by the Sierra Club. About 35 miles of the limited-access highway have already been built south of Route 51, Jefferson Hills, into Washington and Fayette counties.

Claiming that Americans spend the equivalent of 55 work days a year in traffic, the Sierra Club released a map, "Smart Choices, Less Traffic," highlighting the best and worst local plans for alleviating traffic conditions and air pollution in the United States.

The map said of the northern section of the Mon-Fayette road:

"It will pull jobs and divert investment from Pittsburgh's revitalized downtown into the rural areas along the new highway. Hundreds of miles of farmland, watersheds, streams and lakes will be destroyed, including five miles along the Monongahela River."

Joan Miles of PennFuture, a public interest group, said the Sierra Club's report shows leaders are "near-sighted" when it comes to revitalizing the region, citing more traffic, tolls, debt, shopping centers and taxes.

"Sprawl is not just about losing a few trees," Miles said. "It's about real economic costs. Costs that all of us must bear."

Rachel Filippini, representing the Group Against Smog and Pollution, said the Mon-Fayette Expressway could make Pittsburgh indistinguishable from sprawling suburbs.

"In the end, our heritage, our neighborhoods, our universities and our beautiful landscapes, including river access, may be what make this area most attractive to residents, visitors and businesses," she said.