Expressway work on track
In what looks like something out of a futuristic vision of highways, construction work on the second and final phase of the Uniontown-to-Brownsville link of the Mon/Fayette Expressway is continuing, with the section closest to Uniontown slated to open later this year. “It looks nice up there. It’s a little different for Uniontown, it looks like something you would see in Pittsburgh, but not Uniontown,” said project manager Hurley Gammon speaking of the newly constructed ramps off Route 119.
Gammon, of Trumbull Corp., said section 51A1 in North Union Township includes 1.1 miles of mainline, an interchange with Route 51, and new connections both northbound and southbound with Route 119. This section, which will complete the construction at the Uniontown end of the project, will open to traffic at the end of fall, Gammon said.
Once the portion is open, Gammon said vehicles would be able to travel from Route 119 straight to Redstone Township without using Northgate Highway, which connects Route 40 and Route 51 and is now the access point for the expressway.
The work is on schedule, Gammon said.
Gammon said drivers entering the toll road at Route 119 will only have to pay a toll at the mainline at Searights, and for people exiting the first exit.
Gammon said another small section past Brownsville Drive-In in Redstone Township is completed, but it cannot be opened because it doesn’t yet connect to other open portions.
During a slide show highlighting the Uniontown-to-Brownsville link earlier this year, project manager Mike Houser of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission said the 17-mile project includes two phases, the second of which is under construction.
The $197 million first phase opened in 2008.
Houser said the second phase includes 10 miles of highway and a cost of $410 million, including a $95 million bridge over the Monongahela River connecting Fayette and Washington counties. A maintenance building also is being built near Searights, and is scheduled to open next winter.
The entire second phase, which includes the new bridge over the Monongahela River, will open in the spring of 2012, according to Turnpike Commission spokesman Tom Fox.
West Virginia transportation officials say the final phases of construction are under way, and the Mon/Fayette Expressway should open by spring, according to the Associated Press.
Division of Highways engineer Marvin Murphy said a $23 million northern interchange is being built now from Bowers Lane to the Pennsylvania state line and the Mon/Fayette Expressway.
So is the $11.6 million southern interchange, linking Interstate 68 to the expressway.
Murphy said the final component will be installing toll booths north of I-68.
Although the states originally planned a single toll both, lawmakers rejected that plan.
The West Virginia Parkways Authority will operate its own booth, while the Pennsylvania Turnpike system collects tolls for that state.