Cal U students think expressway extension will help college
A stretch of the Mon/Fayette Expressway
Cal U students Megan Collins, a junior secondary math major (left), and Jasmin Wadsworth, a senior biology/pre-med major, weigh in on the Mon/Fayette Expressway expansion and the impact higher turnpike fees could have on students.
A truck approaches the north bound Toll Plaza at the Charleroi/Donora interchange on Toll Route 43 in Fallowfield Township.
Roberto M. Esquivel|HeraldStandard
Motorists drive through a toll booth in Redstone Township on the Mon/Fayette Expressway in this file photo.
Roberto M. Esquivel | Herald-Standard
A motorist passes through the toll plaza after exiting the Mon/Fayette Expressway at Northgate Highway in North Union Township in this 2013 file photo.
California University of Pennsylvania students, Jasmin Wadsworth and Megan Collins, use the Mon/Fayette Expressway almost every day to commute to class from their respective homes in Brownsville and Connellsville.
It’s fast and convenient, they say.
And if the 74-mile toll road, which starts at the West Virginia border and ends at Jefferson Township in southern Allegheny County, is extended an additional 14 miles to Monroeville, near I-376, as proposed, the two students say it will make the drive to Pittsburgh safer and much quicker.
“I like going to Pittsburgh,” said Collins, 20, a junior who lives in Connellsville and commutes to campus. “More students could get here, too.”
“Personally, I think it would be convenient,” said Wadsworth, 21, a senior who lives in Brownsville.
“It would make things simpler.”
But what about the $2.1 billion price tag for the extension?
That’s the question. Who is going to pay for it?
In 2013, then Gov. Tom Corbett signed Act 89, a transportation and infrastructure bill that would fund road projects through fees, licenses and the gasoline tax, which is now nearly 50 cents a gallon. The question remains is that if the project gets the green light, then will fees go up to use the road? Higher toll prices to help fund the extension have not been proposed — yet.
As a whole, the state Turnpike Commission raised fees 6 percent in January. Pennsylvania is fourth in the country with 533 miles of toll roads, while Florida has the most at 685.8 miles, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Report.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a regional planning agency comprised of representatives of 10 counties including Fayette, Washington, Westmoreland and Greene counties, will discuss the expressway extension at its meeting today.
Support for the road project among locally elected officials has been mixed.
Economic development experts say connecting Mon/Fayette to Monroeville would benefit Fayette, Green, Washington and Westmoreland counties and make the commute to the Pittsburgh easier and quicker.
“Pittsburgh’s economy may have shifted dramatically over the past few decades from goods producing to service, and that certainly influences their transportation perspective, but the Mon Valley hasn’t made that same transition,” said Bob Shark, executive director of Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, a Fayette County economic development agency.
“Fayette County, Clairton, Duquesne and the like still need better highway access to I-376 because our economies are primarily driven by making things that need to be shipped, and completing that connector to Pittsburgh is critical for that,” Shark said. “Even more importantly, our county’s declining population means we need to draw from a labor pool that is increasingly farther away but still has easy access to us. It’s more and more difficult to attract large employers here when they can’t get the workers they need because a readily available workforce is typically the number one driver for selecting where to locate a plant. Decreasing commuting times by 10 minutes or so might seem trivial, but it increases that labor pool significantly.”
But what about the potential cost to residents who depend on the Mon/Fayette Expressway to get to work, or to school, such as Wadsworth and Collins?
“I would look at alternate routes if I was not worried about getting to class on time” said Megan, who has an E-ZPass, but has had to scramble for enough change to pay the tolls when she has forgotten it.
Jasmin, on the other hand, does not have an E-ZPass, but said the tolls add up quickly. The possibility of spending hundreds of dollars a year on tolls hurts, especially on a limited budget, she said.
“Right now I hate driving to Pittsburgh.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, incomes of the residents of the communities living along the road vary widely.
At Exit 39 of the Mon/Fayette Expressway, which covers the communities of Fallowfield Township, Charleroi Borough and Donora Borough in Washington County, incomes vary from $56,824 (Fallowfield) to $34,750 (Donora) to $28,309 (Charleroi).
The toll at that exit is $1.45 for a two-axle — passenger — vehicle. A person in Fallowfield Township makes an average of $155.68 a day, while a Donora resident makes $95.20, and a Charleroi resident makes $77.55 a day. If a person uses that exit once in the morning for work or school in the morning, and to return home at night five days a week, he would pay $14.50 a week, or $754 a year. That amount is equal to more than a week’s (pretax) take home pay for someone living in Charleroi or Donora.
At exit 15 in North Union Township, a person living in that municipality makes an annual income of $35,406, or $97 daily. In both cases, E-ZPass users get a discounted rate.
While it may seem like it costs a lot to travel the Mon/Fayette Expressway, there are toll roads that are significantly more expensive.
According to www.usaautomotive.net, the E-470 in Denver is 47 miles long and has five different stops where you pay a $3 toll. That means it’s $15 to travel the entire route, or 33 cents a mile.
Then there is a 17-mile stretch of highway on the Monterey Peninsula in California that connects Pacific Grove with Pebble Beach. Just to get on the highway, there is a $9.25 entrance fee.
So perhaps paying more to use the Mon/Fayette Expressway is not so bad.
“As for the toll aspect, I wonder about the ability to generate sufficient toll revenue given that there are other reasonable options to drive from the Morgantown area to the Pittsburgh area,” said Robert Dunn, an economics professor at Washington & Jefferson College. “It isn’t clear to me that a large number of drivers would choose the expressway and its tolls when they could drive I-79 to I-376 from Morgantown to reach Pittsburgh while avoiding all tolls. Just looking on Google Maps this non-toll route doesn’t seem to be much longer in terms of miles or minutes and is certainly cheaper.”