What’s up?
Who could ever be against a new, modern highway connecting our area to Pittsburgh?
Well, it turns out three local Republican state representatives are against it. They are Matt Dowling of Uniontown, Bud Cook of Coal Center and Ryan Warner of Perryopolis.
The three recently wrote a letter to Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, expressing their opposition to plans for extending the Mon-Fayette Expressway from Jefferson to Monroeville.
“The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s rational for taking the Mon-Fayette extension to Monroeville is completely ridiculous,” said Warner.
However, what Warner and Dowling and Cook apparently don’t understand is that isn’t just a road to Monroeville. This is a road to Pittsburgh. At Monroeville, the expressway would connect to Interstate 376, otherwise known as the Parkway East, providing a desperately needed direct link to Pittsburgh.
Currently the Mon-Fayette Expressway ends at Jefferson, about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. From there, motorists face a difficult trip to Pittsburgh via Route 51, which is full of traffic jams, red lights and continuous construction projects. It can easily take an hour or more to make the journey.
With the expressway being extended to Monroeville and linked to the Parkway East, motorists can look forward to a quick 30-40 minute trip from Jefferson to Pittsburgh on modern, up-to-date highways.
Not only will the expressway extension make it much easier for motorists to get around, it will cut down on costly travel delays for businesses in the area and open it up for economic development. State Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Bullskin Township, noted that the expressway extension project “Would kick start economic development like nothing else could.”
In their letter, the three lawmakers said instead of building the expressway, the turnpike commission should revive plans for the Southern Beltway, which would extend the Mon-Fayette Expressway near Finleyville to the Pittsburgh International Airport. However, talk about reviving plans for the beltway would surely come as a shock to the turnpike commission.
Construction is progressing quite nicely on the 25-mile extension. The first section has been completed from the airport to Route 22 and work on the second section has started. It’s expected to be completed early in 2019. Then, work is expected to being on the third section, which will run from Interstate 79 to Finleyvlle. While there’s no timetable for the completion of the project, it’s reasonable to expect that it should be completed by 2025.
We agree with Warner, Dowling and Cook that the Southwestern Beltway is crucial to the economic development of our area. If push came to shove, we might even favor it over the expressway extension. But there is money to build both roads, so there’s no reason to even talk about such a difficult decision.
In the end, you have to wonder what’s going on here. Are Warner, Dowling and Cook misinformed or misguided? Whatever the reason, they’re definitely mistaken. Provincialism and backward thinking have plagued the Mon-Fayette Expressway since it was first conceived in the mid-1960s. It’s time for some progressive forward-thinking, especially among our lawmakers who are paid to advocate for the best interests of local residents.
The three lawmakers need to support not only the Southern Beltway but also the Mon-Fayette Expressway extension to Monroeville. The economic future of our area depends on it.