Disappointing
They fought the toll, and the toll won. Supervisors in North Union and South Union townships unsuccessfully attempted to convince the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to allow free use of the mile-long ramp between Route 119 and Old Pittsburgh Road exit of the Mon/Fayette Expressway.
This is a disappointing turn of events not just for the supervisors, but the county as a whole. The interchange was intended to eliminate the current traffic problems, making travel safer, and to encourage economic development in the area. Insisting on tolls means that won’t happen. Rather than offering a viable, effective alternative to reach Fayette County Business Park, the expensive ramp will be under-used – and a perfect example of a wasted opportunity.
Ironically, Turnpike Commission spokesman Tom Fox put it best: “No one’s going to use (the ramp) if they know their way around,” he said.
Our thoughts exactly.
Now that tolls are part of the equation, drivers are going to use the current routes to reach the business park, avoiding the ramp in order to avoid the tolls. The Turnpike knows this – their spokesman came out and said it – so why then are they insisting on collecting tolls on the ramp?
The twisted logic behind the move is in addition to the fact that the Turnpike’s decision to toll the interchange is especially galling considering Fayette County’s early and continued support of the Mon/Fayette Expressway.
When Pittsburgh communities were fighting the road, we were embracing it. It would’ve been easy for the Turnpike to forgo tolls for the ramp. As such, it’s hard not to see this move as a slap in the face.
Fox also said that local officials had insisted on a full interchange instead of a partial one and couldn’t believe that they were now trying to avoid the tolls. Well, if a full interchange was needed then shouldn’t it have been built regardless of the tolls? What exactly is the connection Fox is trying to make? Is he saying Fayette County should have been so grateful for the expressway that it should have accepted something substandard? If so, that’s exactly the kind of thinking that has plagued Fayette County for far too many years. We thought the construction of the expressway was designed to help us shed our image as a poverty-ridden county and make us truly competitive with other counties across the state. It’s disappointing and discouraging that Fox seems to think we don’t deserve first-class treatment.
The amount of the toll has yet to be determined, but township officials believe the toll for the Old Pittsburgh Road ramp, for example, will be between 50 and 95 cents. That may not seem like much, but seems far larger when weighed against the county’s long support for the Turnpike’s effort.
The toll plazas are already under construction, so it seems a forgone conclusion that some sort of tolls will be collected. It remains our hope that the Turnpike realizes that any substantial toll will undermine the purported purpose of the ramp.
While the Turnpike seems to believe it’s true that if you build it, they will come – it’s also true that if you toll it, drivers will find some other way.