The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced recently that the Fayette County leg of the Mon/Fayette Expressway's "Mason-Dixon Link" is scheduled to open to customers on March 1, 2000.

The new roadway will feature a state-of-the-art toll collection system using unattended "dual-height" multi-mode machines to accommodate both trucks and cars. The new fare-collection equipment will accept coins, $1 and $5 bills and PTC commercial credit cards. It will make change and issue printed receipts.

Turnpike employees will be present to ensure that collection machines are working properly.

Motorists using the expressway will pass through a six-lane mainline toll plaza about five miles north of the West Virginia line — or at ramp plazas at the Rubles Mill Road interchange approximately one mile south of the mainline barrier.

Payment at the ramp plazas will be required of motorists entering the southbound lanes or exiting the northbound lanes (see accompanying toll-structure charts). Each of the two plazas on the ramps at the Rubles Mill road interchange will have two lanes.

The 7.8-mile, $140 million expressway generally parallels Pa. Route 857 in a north-south direction and connects to the four-mile Pa. Route 43 (Chadville Demonstration Project), a non-toll expressway that ties in to U.S. Route 119 near Uniontown.

Entry and exit points are at Big Six Road near Fayette Business Park, Rubles Mill Road and Gans Road.

Approximately 1.6 miles of the new road, from Gans Road south to the state line, will open when the West Virginia Department of Transportation's Division of Highways completes construction of the 4.2 miles of the Mason Dixon Link south of the Pennsylvania border. Construction on the West Virginia side has begun.

When the total project is complete, the expressway will end with an interchange at Interstate 68 just east of Morgantown.

The Mason Dixon Link is part of a proposed 65-mile system of Mon/Fayette Expressway projects that will extend north through Fayette, Washington and Allegheny counties to connections with Interstate 376 in Pittsburgh and Monroeville.

Approximately 35 miles of the system should be open within 24 to 30 months when the 17-mile Mon/Fayette Expressway Project from Interstate 70 in Fallowfield Township, Washington County to Pa. Route 51 in Jefferson Hills, Allegheny County is completed.

A recent "open house" event attracted thousands to the Turnpike's newest expansion project — the Mon/Fayette Expressway's Mason-Dixon Link.

The "Community Day on the Expressway" was held to thank community residents for their patience during construction and to celebrate the soon-to-be completed expressway.

People from the surrounding communities got a sneak preview of the 7.8-mile long roadway, as well as the interchanges and toll plazas — more than four months before they opened for business.