The Mon/Fayette system will extend approximately 70 miles south from Pittsburgh through the Monongahela River Valley and western Fayette County to Interstate 68 near Morgantown, W.Va. It will improve access to redevelopment sites in the economically depressed Mon River towns where the steel and coal industries once flourished. It also will provide faster and safer travel options for through traffic, particularly commercial vehicles that now use existing north-south arteries, such as PA Route 51, PA Route 88, PA Route 837, and PA Route 857, as well as U.S. Route 40 (the National Road).

The Southern Beltway will form an arc about 32 miles long with a radius approximately 15 miles out from Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle. It will improve access and east-west mobility between the mid-Mon Valley, at the Mon/Fayette Expressway near Finleyville, and Pittsburgh International Airport at the Pa. Route 60 Expressway.

These highways are among a number of new toll roads the Pennsylvania General Assembly directed the PTC to design, construct and operate when it passed Act 61 of 1985. The long-term benefit of assigning these new highways to the PTC is that once they are built, tax dollars would not be required to maintain them. The PTC is responsible for more than 500 miles of roadway and is able to maintain its system with toll revenue.

In western Pennsylvania, completed Act 61 projects include the 17-mile Beaver Valley Expressway in Beaver and Lawrence counties and the 13-mile Greensburg Bypass in Westmoreland County. The Beaver Valley and Greensburg projects, which opened in 1992 and 1993 respectively, were the first expansions of the Pennsylvania Turnpike system since the 110-mile Northeast Extension between Philadelphia and Scranton was completed in 1957.

Pennsylvania Act 26 of 1991 added the Southern Beltway to the list of new toll roads. It also established, for the first time, a continuous source of state funding to help the PTC advance expansion projects. Since 1992 the PTC has been receiving 14 percent of the revenue generated by the 5.5 mill increase of the Pennsylvania Oil Company Franchise Tax, which amounts to approximately $46 million annually. An additional $28 million per year for Turnpike expansion projects, from vehicle registration revenues, was committed in Act 3 of 1997. By establishing these funding streams for the PTC, state lawmakers acknowledged that the agency could not be expected to continue to build new toll roads while properly maintaining its existing system, much of which dates to 1940, without outside funding.

Federal lawmakers have come to the same realization. Before 1987, no federal tax dollars could be used for the development of new toll roads. To date, nearly $78.5 million in federal funds have been earmarked to help the PTC advance the Mon/Fayette Expressway and Southern Beltway Projects.
The PTC is attempting to procure additional federal and state dollars to help cover the cost of designing and building new toll roads. Turnpike officials also are exploring new and innovative financing options.

To ensure that the Mon/Fayette Expressway and Southern Beltway projects qualify for federal funds, the Commission is following planning guidelines established under the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Section 404 of the Federal Clean Water Act and the 1991 U.S. Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. These regulations mandate that major transportation projects be developed in an environmentally sensitive manner that addresses input from the public and environmental resource agencies.

Approximately 35 miles of the Mon/Fayette Expressway system are operational. The newest project, 17 miles north from I-70 to Pa. Route 51 in southeastern Allegheny County, opened in its entirety on April 12, 2002. Opened on March 1, 2000 were the northern 6.2 miles of the Mon/Fayette's 12-mile Mason Dixon Link south of Uniontown that eventually will link with I-68. The PTC will open the southernmost 1.6 miles in Pennsylvania when the 4.2-mile West Virginia side is completed. Construction is underway and the West Virginia Department of Transportation's Division of Highways is proposing to complete the construction of the Mason Dixon Link by 2011.

The northern 6.2 miles of the Mason Dixon Link connects to the four-mile, non-tolled Pa. Route 43 Expressway, which was built by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PENNDOT) and opened in November 1992 as the Chadville Demonstration Project.

Extending south from the newest project opened in April 2002 is the six-mile California Toll Road (Turnpike 43) between Interstate 70 and U.S. Route 40. It was built by PENNDOT and turned over to the PTC upon its opening in October 1990.

Existing expressways at the southern end of the California Toll Road (Pa. Route 88) and at the northern end of the Chadville project (U.S. Route 119) also would serve as parts of the Mon/Fayette Expressway.

The Mon/Fayette Expressway system under development by the PTC consists of four independent, stand-alone projects that are designed to address local needs yet work together as a cohesive whole for regional benefit.

The Southern Beltway consists of three independent projects that also would address local needs and work together as a circumferential highway south and west of the Pittsburgh urban core. The first six miles of the Southern Beltway, The Findlay Connector, extending south from the PA Route 60 Expressway at Pittsburgh International Airport to U.S. Route 22 in Robinson Township, Washington County, opened to traffic on October 11, 2006.