Dec 13, 2002 By Amy Karpinsky 3 min read

Although the Uniontown-to-Brownsville link of the Mon/Fayette Expressway is by far the most important highway project for Fayette County, without its formal inclusion in a long-range plan, it may be at risk of losing federal funding. The Fayette County Transportation Alliance held a brainstorming session Thursday afternoon to come up with a list of transportation projects, including the Mon/Fayette, as part of a long-range plan to submit to the Southwestern Planning Commission, a regional transportation alliance of which the county recently became a full member.

Fayette County’s priorities will be included in the long-range plan for the SPC, which the county joined earlier this year. Doug Smith of the SPC said when the previous long-range plan was adopted for the SPC, Fayette County was not included because it wasn’t a member on the transportation side. The new plan, which will include up to the year 2030, must be completed within the next few months before the public comment period begins. The plan will be formally adopted next summer.

Smith said Fayette County is kind of special in the plan because none of its transportation projects have been included in the SPC plan before. However, thanks to a comprehensive plan the county had already, most of the priorities have already been determined.

“It really helps us out that we have something to work with,” Smith said. He said that any project that will use federal transportation dollars has to be included in the plan.

The first project that was mentioned was the Mon/Fayette Expressway transportation project. In addition to the 12-mile stretch from Uniontown to Brownsville, a number of related projects will also be listed in the plan. Using several maps of Fayette County, the alliance members gave input on what projects should be included.

Chuck DiPietro of SPC said the plan has to be wrapped up quickly. He said that federal law requires that the plan be fiscally restrained. He said normally in the plan for southwestern Pennsylvania, 80 percent of the funding is for capital maintenance of existing highways and sites and only 20 percent is for new construction.

Jim Marzullo, chairman of the Fayette Expressway Completion Organization (FAECO), said that the building a new Alicia Heights Road and relocation of the existing road are very important projects for western Fayette County.

Two other projects that were mentioned were the Matthew Drive/New Salem Road project in South Union Township near the county Business Park and the need for a new intersection at the intersection of routes 40 and 166.

Uniontown businessman Donald Miller suggested that an upgrade of Route 40 near Nemacolin Woodlands will be needed as more events come into the resort.

The road improvements near the maximum-security state prison were also mentioned. DiPietro said the plan should show that the prison will include 700 employees and 2,000 inmates when it opens next year.

Other areas that were discussed for inclusion are the Route 40/119 interchange and the Route 21/119 interchange. Intersections in Uniontown and Connellsville were also mentioned. The main corridors the alliance touched upon included the areas of Route 51; Route 119; Route 40; Route 21 west; Route 201; Route 711 and Route 381.

DiPietro said he and Smith will compile a table of projects for the county and generate it into a list including the amount of funding for each project.

The list will be discussed at the alliance’s January meeting.