Expressway will cause, not solve problems
The promoters of the Mon-Fayette toll roads in western Pennsylvania have a lot in common with the Wizard of Oz. The great and powerful wizard claimed he would solve not only Dorothy and Toto’s problems but their friends’ problems, too. Toto finally unmasked the so-called Wizard as a mere circus promoter manipulating images behind a curtain, who took advantage of the people’s desire to believe in easy answers. Plans for the Mon-Fayette were conceived in the heyday of steel when population in the Mon Valley was at its peak. Even though time has drastically changed the region’s character and economy, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and toll road supporters cling to a plan that is firmly rooted in the past. They blow smoke and angle their mirrors, inflating unsubstantiated claims that the toll roads will return the Mon Valley to its previous glory. The road, the wizards say, will revitalize the industrial sector, reduce travel time, and most of all, create an unparalleled spur to economic development.
But studies from other areas tell a different story. Highways do not create wealth – they just move it from one place to another. Highway profits go to the sprawl developers who destroy green space as they move jobs and people from historic real places to faceless new places.
Nine years ago, the Turnpike Commission estimated that it would cost just over $2 billion to finish the Mon-Fayette; the revised price tag is now nearly $4 billion and climbing. Based on that number, the road will cost $42 million per mile – nearly $800 for every Pennsylvania family. Much of the money will go to buy land from private individuals removing it from the tax rolls. The Mon-Fayette will continue the deterioration of the city, accelerate the loss of green space, and destroy access to the rivers.
When it comes to this road, however, the wizards behind the curtain just keep pulling the levers and putting on the show.
But now, a new report commissioned by Penn Future pulls the curtain back and dramatically shows – based on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s own documents – that the highway is “a truly dismal use of public funds.”
The report, written by transportation expert Walter Kulash – who designs road projects for governments and consults with developers nationwide – has documented point by point just how wasteful and harmful the Mon-Fayette toll roads would be
The toll roads will hinder economic development of the depressed areas.
Proponents claim that the toll roads will bring back industrial jobs to the Mon Valley, despite their own documentation showing that industrial jobs will continue to drop in the region. Building the roads will simply enable businesses to speed past depressed brownfields and develop in the far greenfields. It will do nothing to attract the only types of jobs forecast to increase in the region – white collar or knowledge jobs, and community serving jobs like primary health care, education, neighborhood services, local entertainment, and community institutions.
The toll roads will add to traffic congestion.
Building major highways actually increases traffic, since a larger geographic area is brought into reasonable travel time. This traffic phenomenon is called “induced travel,” and agencies are increasingly taking this unintended consequence into consideration. Mon-Fayette proponents, however, have consistently failed to consider induced travel, and instead claim that vehicle miles traveled will drop by more than 60,000 miles. But standardized analysis shows that the Mon-Fayette will increase traffic by between 24,855 and 69,226 vehicle miles traveled, making today’s traffic jams a picnic by comparison.
Toll roads are an extraordinarily poor use of public funds.
As Kulash put it, “Most public works projects try to get at least $1.50 back in public benefits for every dollar spent. But for every dollar put into this project, the public will only get 20 cents of benefit.” And much of the money spent on the toll roads will leave the area, since pulling together such a massive project in a short time will mean bringing in equipment, contractors and workers from other states.
No credible case for the stimulation of economic development by the toll roads can be made.
The roads’ proponents maintain that the toll roads are a good public investment because they will generate employment. However, project documentation offers no support for this claim of increased employment due to the toll roads. Not one cent will go to improving the Mon Valley directly. There will be no enhancements of existing bridges and roadways; no improvements in services or access to mass transportation; and certainly no new investment in education and job training.
The toll roads will actually bypass the communities they purport to save, taking development and businesses with them.
Other alternatives are much more likely to improve transportation and economic development.
It takes investments in education, mass transportation, services and existing bridges and roadways to revitalize a community.
These are the kinds of projects that will help make Mon-Fayette communities more attractive, improve the everyday lives of residents and generate local jobs. Penn Future has convened local experts to develop an alternative plan, and will be presenting the plan in the near future.
Nevertheless, proponents are undeterred, continuing full speed ahead with their ill-conceived plan. “This is not a highway, it’s an economic revitalization strategy,” said Joe Kirk, chairman of the Mon-Fayette Expressway and Southern Beltway Alliance.
Or as the Wizard of Oz said, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
Jeanne Clark is the director of communications for Penn Future.