Dec 13, 2010 By Amy Revak 5 min read

(The following is the last of a two-part series on the progress on the Mon/Fayette Expressway.) The pieces of the puzzle that will be the completed 17-mile Uniontown-to-Brownsville section of the Mon/Fayette Expressway are coming together.

During a tour of the construction projects on Friday, Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission officials said the majority of the six separate second-phase projects are ahead of schedule. The first of the second phase of the expressway projects, a $72 million major interchange in North Union Township, will open to traffic at 9 a.m. Monday.

Another segment, at the end of the link in Washington County near Low Hill, may be open within in month, according to Michael S. Houser, engineering project manager with the Turnpike Commission.

That project included expanding what was formerly Route 88 from two lanes to four. The remaining work includes weather-sensitive items such as line painting. However, even if the opening is delayed a couple more months, Houser said initially that portion of the road was not slated to open until November 2011.

Another section in Centerville and West Brownsville boroughs, and included 2.5 miles of mainline road, a modified diamond interchange with Route 88 and reconstruction of one mile of Route 88. That aspect of the work cost $84 million.

The remaining links are making their way toward completion. With the exception of the biggest project, a new bridge that connects Fayette and Washington counties, the remaining portions will be done before the middle of next summer, Houser said.

The largest and most expensive contract, construction of a new Monongahela River Bridge, is a $95 million project that will be the last completed. It is slated for completion in late spring of 2012.

As it stands, the bridge project is 59 percent finished. The bridge was originally slated for completion in the fall of 2011 but problems with concrete in one of the piers set back the construction schedule when the pier had to be demolished and begun anew.

Crews atop the 220-foot piers that eventually will carry four lanes of traffic over the river recently worked on a windy, cold day to build the highway. Houser said the crews were pouring a new section every five days, but with the cold weather that schedule may be pushed back to one every six days.

The crews must climb 220 steps to get to work each morning. The bridge will include six piers and two asphalt abutments leading up to it. Originally designed as steel, the contractor, Walsh Construction of Cranberry Township, proposed an alternative concrete structure, which is slowly taking shape.

When complete, the bridge will be 90 feet wide, 200 feet tall and 3,000 feet long. The 15-foot sections of the bridge are poured using a machine called a form traveler that sits atop the piers. To date, there are 65 out of the 195 sections cast for the bridge. That figure includes 32 sections that are cast on Pier 2 and 33 on Pier 5.

The crews pour the concrete on alternating sides of each pier, going halfway to the other pier before moving on to another pier to pour the sections out from that pier. Cables in the concrete will hold all the sections together.

Piers 3 and 4 just barely touch the river because a navigable waterway had to be maintained for the barge traffic, Houser said.

Turnpike Commission spokesman Tom Fox said all the new bridges that are being constructed are made in the same style.

Houser said that style is a cast-in-place concrete segmental bridge with steel rebar inside. The concrete that is being used can withstand 6,000 pounds per square inch.

Frank J. Kempf Jr., chief engineer of the Turnpike Commission’s engineering design and construction departments, said the project would benefit area residents even if they opt to not use the toll road because they would be able to travel rehabilitated local roads and new connector roads such as Redstone Way in Redstone Township and Northgate Highway in North Union Township.

The first phase of the project included construction of 7.5 miles of highway, construction of four miles of state road and contracts totaling more than $197 million.

He said the second phase also includes a similar amount of local road projects.

“Even the people who aren’t using the expressway are still benefiting,” Kempf said.

In the first phase, there were six highway construction contracts; four toll plaza construction contracts; eight bridges; 400,000 square yards of concrete pavement; 200,000 square yards of bituminous pavement; 200 million pounds of structural steel; 13 million cubic yards of excavations and the creation of a new 4.5-acre wetland and protection of existing wetlands.

For the current phase, there are six contracts, including 7.7 miles of new highway, with contract bid amounts at $306.6 million.

When the entire link is open, it will be a part of 60 miles of continuous highway beginning near Interstate 68 in West Virginia and stretching to Route 51 in Jefferson Hills, Allegheny County.

Other Mon/Fayette Expressway projects have been put on hold pending additional funding. The decision to complete the Uniontown-to-Brownsville link came several years ago and money was designated to get it done.