Ground set to be broken for expressway section
When state and local dignitaries officially break ground today for the Uniontown to Brownsville link of the Mon/Fayette Expressway, they will mark the beginning of a highway project that almost didn’t get off the ground. While the link was a key linchpin in the early plans for the expressway, the project was scrapped for almost a year in the early 1990s.
Involvement by a few local legislators and residents and former Gov. Robert P. Casey eventually led to a recommitment to the link.
The decision to drop the section was made at a state highway planning meeting in June 1992 at the Meadowlands in Washington County. However, the decision wasn’t made public for months, and then only after it came up at a Brownsville Chamber of Commerce meeting.
Michael C. Ellis, former executive editor of the Herald-Standard, said when the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission decided in June 1992 to not pursue the Uniontown to Brownsville link and the Herald-Standard found out about it, the paper “finally started digging and found out a decision was made and nobody knew it.”
The decision as to why the link was scrapped wasn’t clear, as no transcript was available of the June 1992 Mon-Fayette/Southern Beltway Conference. State Sen. J. Barry Stout was the only legislator represented at the meeting.
Ellis said when he learned of the decision he told then-publisher Thomas L. Spurgeon it was a travesty.
“I told him (Spurgeon), we have to go and see the governor. This can’t be allowed to happen,” Ellis said. After calling Casey’s office, Ellis, Spurgeon and a reporter got an audience with Casey and former Transportation Secretary Howard Yerusalim. Ellis said he still wasn’t encouraged because Casey said there was nothing he could do to reverse the decision.
After visiting Fayette County, Ellis said Casey again said he could not do anything about changing the decision.
“The newspaper then went on a campaign,” Ellis said. He said along the way, he encountered opposition from local chamber of commerce officials and politicians who said the Mason/Dixon link between Uniontown and West Virginia would be jeopardized if the Brownsville to Uniontown link was pursued.
Ellis said the rumor at the time was that there was an agreement between the local politicians to drop the Uniontown to Brownsville link to guarantee completion of the Mason Dixon link.
Eventually, though, the link was again put on the table.
Spurgeon said he believes what turned the tide was the fact that Ellis was able to convince Casey to come to Fayette County to hear from the people. “I give Ellis a lot of credit. He brought the governor to Fayette County. I think that’s when the tide turned,” Spurgeon said.
Spurgeon said a December 1992 meeting in which speaker after speaker chastised the Transportation Department and whoever made the decision not to build that link helped get the project back on track.
“I think that made people change their minds,” Spurgeon said. “There’s a process of checks and balances of which the newspaper is a big part of that.”
Along the way, the Fayette Expressway Completion Organization, formed. Jim Marzullo, one of the original members of FAECO, said once the public stood up and made their position known, he had no doubt the road would be built. He said Herald-Standard reporters and Ellis wrote numerous articles and editorials that kept the issue alive and moving forward.
“It was the will of the people and we wouldn’t accept anything less than a completed road,” Marzullo said. Marzullo and numerous other local residents worked tirelessly to get signatures in support of the road as well as doing studies to justify building the link.
State Sen. Richard Kasunic (D-Dunbar), who was a state representative at the time, said he remembered that when he heard the project was scuttled. “Nobody knew about it,’ said Kasunic, noting that Casey didn’t even know at the time.
Kasunic said he and state Rep. Peter J. Daley (D-California) became involved in a push to get the highway back on track. After being told by Casey to show that there was a need, Kasunic said he was involved in an action committee that studied traffic counts, accidents and other data to justify the need for the highway.
On March 15, 1993, Casey again visited Uniontown and announced the project was back on.
Kasunic said his involvement with the expressway began in 1984 when the expansion legislation was passed. So far, two sections of the expressway, from Uniontown to West Virginia and California to Route 51 have been built. Eventually, turnpike officials hope to have the expressway built from Route 51 to Pittsburgh.
“Today is going to be a great day. I’ve been waiting for a long time,” Kasunic said. The senator said he helped designated $252 million toward construction of the highway project, which is estimated to cost $868 million, $489 million of which has been secured.
Kasunic said when he ran for office in 1982 one of his dreams for Fayette County was to have a limited access highway though the county.
“Twenty-four years later, I’m still working,” he said. “We will never see the full potential of the county without the highway. This is the most important economic development since coal was king,” Kasunic said.
Daley said the groundbreaking is long overdue. He said it is ironic that the section that was really needed most was the Uniontown to Brownsville section.
“I know there are many hours and lives lost on Route 40,” said Daley. “I don’t know why the decision was made. Our whole argument is that the area is so impoverished that the only want to infuse growth into it is to build the highway.
Daley said he remembers 20 years ago creating a gas tax to help build the highway. Daley said he remembers being the mayor of California at the age of 23 and having a groundbreaking for a section of the highway that still stands unfinished near Brownsville.
“I can’t believe 33 years later we’re still not finished with the highway but we’re going to get it,” Daley said.
In hindsight, Spurgeon, currently vice president of administration for Calkins Media, said he believes when the Herald-Standard took the stand it did, the paper was doing what a good newspaper should do. He said it was important to investigate the issue and editorialize about it.
“A good newsroom takes it on to understand why exactly this came into being. The newspaper took it as part of its job to get a logical explanation for something that just did not make sense at the time,” Spurgeon said.
He said at first he was skeptical the highway would get built but he became more optimistic as public opinion changed.
“It’s great to hear they are going to break ground and it will be built,” Spurgeon said. “I admire the people who initially quested and stood up to that decisions and pressed for it to be changed. That’s journalism and democracy,” Spurgeon said.
Marzullo said he really had no doubt the road would be built.
“I didn’t know it would take 13 years, but I knew it would get done,” Marzullo said. “I think the best thing that ever happened was the road was taken off because we have supported it with a vim and vigor that has made us believe we can accomplish anything we want.”