Few people attend transportation meeting
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) held a public participation meeting at the Fayette Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday evening to give the public an opportunity to voice their opinions or concerns about the region’s transportation system. Attendance was low, however, with less than a handful of people attending the meeting to collect information and no one opting to give testimony.
Ken Flack, an SPC manager, said the lack of attendance was not surprising, because “everybody shows up when they want money” and “at this point everybody can look up information about the projects online.”
The SPC is the intergovernmental body making decisions for the 2007-2010 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), covering 10 counties, including Fayette County, which is home to 60 of the projects within the program, Flack explained.
He said 80 percent of the program funding is federal, 20 percent comes from the state and a “sliver” is pulled from local funding.
The SPC will decide whether or not to adopt TIP at a July 31 meeting in Pittsburgh.
“I think we’ve put together a program that everyone is going to agree on,” Flack added.
The Mon-Fayette Expressway is part of the program.
Flack said $3 billion is still needed to complete the project. An outline of the completion dates stated that the Uniontown to Brownsville Phase 2 portion of the project is set for completion in 2010, the state route 51 to I-376 portion in 2012, and the state route 22 to I-79 portion and the I-79 to the expressway portion in 2013.
Norma Ryan, former Brownsville mayor, attended the meeting hoping to find information about projects concerning her favorite river town.
Ryan said the transportation projects concerning Brownsville, such as the Mon-Fayette Expressway, should “help alleviate the trucking and traffic coming through Brownsville.”
“We love people coming through Brownsville,” she said. “It’s tough for the larger trucks. We’re looking for safer, easier routes for the truck traffic.”
For more information on the program or to submit a comment, visit www.spcregion.org
;or write SPC Comments, 425 Sixth Ave., Suite 2500, Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1852; or fax TIP Comments to 412-391-9160; or e-mail begin comments@spcregion.org comments@spcregion.org end
. All comments must be received by 4:30 p.m. Thursday, July 27. The next public meeting in the area is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 17 on the third floor of Stover Hall at Waynesburg College, Waynesburg.