May 28, 2002 By Todd Spangler Associated Press Writer 3 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission last week released a draft environmental impact statement on a proposed toll expressway linking struggling towns along the Monongahela River with Pittsburgh that planners say will reduce congestion and spur economic development. The report’s release means critics and supporters of the plan can speak out in the months to come to weigh in on the planned 24-mile road, which would connect an existing section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway to Interstate 376 and Pittsburgh.

The report says the expressway would help reduce congestion in and around Pittsburgh, which is expected to increase by 22 percent over the next 23 years.

It is also, in the turnpike commission’s view, likely to improve access to abandoned industrial sites, called brownfields, which “represent the leading development opportunities within the project study area.”

When completed, the entire expressway would stretch some 70 miles from Morgantown, W.Va., to Pittsburgh, with the hope it will open up areas of the state which were left economically depressed when steel mills and coal mines closed decades ago.

The section of the toll road that would run to Pittsburgh is already generating some of the most intense debate, with opponents arguing it may fail in its objective to open up the Mon Valley to redevelopment and solve congestion problems in and around the city.

Some critics say it will actually create more congestion and split neighborhoods.

“For every dollar of cost for this project, there will be only 20 cents of benefit,” said traffic engineer Walter Kulash, who prepared a report on the expressway for Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, an environmental group.

“The public needs to scrutinize this (report),” said Court Gould, director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, a public policy group, adding that citizens need to figure out whether the Turnpike Commission has adequately addressed the social, economic and environmental questions the project raises.

Once the report is released for public comment – beginning on Friday – people for and against the project will have 75 days in which to voice their concerns.

A final report, including those comments, will then be sent to the Federal Highway Administration for a decision on whether the section should be built and under what conditions.

Specifically, the draft report calls for an expressway which would run north from the end of the existing road in Jefferson Hills and crossing the Monongahela River near Duquesne. An eastern leg would then be built through Turtle Creek to hook up with I-376 at Monroeville. A western link would follow the north shore of the Monongahela River – traversing the communities of North Braddock, Braddock, Rankin and Swissvale – before entering Pittsburgh.

The Jefferson Hills-to-Pittsburgh section of the road is expected to cost about $1.9 billion.

Before submitting the final report, the Turnpike Commission will hold four informational sessions on the expressway plans, the first scheduled for June 13 at the Monroeville Expo Mart. Following the informational sessions, three public hearings will be held – on July 16, at West Mifflin High School; on July 23, at Burgwin Elementary School in Hazelwood; and on July 25, at the Expo Mart in Monroeville.

Gould said already there has been talk about trying to get the 75-day comment period extended to 150 days, if only because of the length of the document.

“Seventy-five days is not a lot of time,” said Gould. “I think it is in everybody’s interest to have that 75 days extended.”

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On the Net:

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission: http://www.paturnpike.com

Sustainable Pittsburgh: http://www.sustainablepittsburgh.org

Surface Transportation Policy Project: http://www.transact.org

Fayette Expressway Completion Organization: http://www.faeco.telerama.com

Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future: http://www.pennfuture.org