Project Information

• The purpose of the Mon/Fayette Expressway Uniontown-to-Brownsville Project is to provide for safer and more efficient vehicular travel by improving access, addressing future capacity requirements and drawing traffic (especially trucks) off U.S. Route 40 and onto a more modern facility. The project is designed to support the efforts of the National Road Heritage Park, to make Route 40 less of a major transportation artery and more of a local traffic corridor and tourist destination. 

• The project will close a gap in the existing Mon/Fayette Expressway system between the U.S. Route 119 Uniontown Bypass (the George C. Marshall Parkway) and the Route 88 "feeder" into the California Toll Road. Interchanges between those end points will serve a new Northgate Highway and a relocated Old Pittsburgh Road in North Union Township, Searights Crossroads in Menallen Township, the New Redstone Way in Redstone Township and Telegraph Road in Luzerne Township.

• Due to funding limitations, the overall project was divided into two construction phases.

• Phase 1, which was completed and opened for traffic in October 2008, extends from  the PA Route 51 Connector (now known as Northgate Highway-S.R.4039), in North Union Township 9 miles to an extension of the existing four-lane portion of PA Route 40 (Brownsville Connector/Redstone Way) near Grindstone Road at the Redstone Township/Brownsville Township line.

• Phase 2 construction began in Spring 2008 and consists of sections 51A1, 51E2, 51F, 51G, 51H, 51J, and 51M extending the Expressway 8 miles northward from Redstone Twp. to a point near PA Rte. 88 and the PA Route 40/Turnpike 43 cloverleaf interchange at the Centerville Borough/West Brownsville Borough line. Phase 2 will also complete the southern end of the expressway by constructing the fully directional interchange with PA Route 119 (Section 51A1).

• New connections to PA Route 40 from the new expressway will be built in the junction of Fan Hollow Road and Duck Hollow Road in South Union Township, at Searights/Herbert Road in Menallen Township and at the new Redstone Way connection into Brownsville.

• The Uniontown to Brownsville project includes a new major crossing of the Monongahela River south of Brownsville.

• A new Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Maintenance Facility located adjacent to the Searights Interchange will be constructed during Phase 2. PENNDOT’s current maintenance facility in Menallen Township will also be relocated nearby adjacent to Pleasant View/Smock Road on existing PENNDOT property.

• The project includes improvements to existing state and local roads, or the construction of new roads. New roads include: Northgate Highway (S.R. 4039) in North Union Township, Redstone Way in Redstone Township, and the Bull Run Road Connector and Telegraph Road Extension in Luzerne Township. The total length of these new roadways is approximately 5 miles. Reconstruction to 45 other local and state roads will improve approximately 13 miles of roadways.

• A wetland mitigation site and 2000 feet of stream mitigation was constructed during Phase 1 to compensate for project impacts. The site is located in North Union Township, along Jennings Run. To mitigate for the remaining stream impacts the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has entered into agreement with the Fayette County Conservation District to provide funding for stream mitigation projects at other sites.