PA Turnpike Commission Stops Work on Mon-Fayette Expressway

Commissioners freeze project spending due to apparent lack of support.

 

HIGHSPIRE, PA. (March 21, 2017) — The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced today that it will stop engineering-design activities on the 14-mile Mon-Fayette Expressway project in Allegheny County in light of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s recent decision to table the project.

“The PA Turnpike has a legislative mandate to develop the Mon-Fayette Expressway, but our role is not to serve as an advocate for the project,” said PA Turnpike CEO Mark Compton. “This is a regional project, and the decision as to whether it is of value to the region should be made by those who live there. If the region does not want to move forward with the expressway, we will certainly respect their decision.”

Compton said that, in such a case, Turnpike commissioners would decide how to reallocate the funds to other applicable PA Turnpike projects it was directed to develop by the state legislature as part of Act 61.

Design of the Mon-Fayette project from Route 51 to I-376 — the fourth and final project of the Mon-Fayette Expressway system — was first started in 2004. This leg of the expressway would connect State Route 51 in Jefferson Hills to Interstate 376 (the Parkway East) in Monroeville. It is the largest and most expensive of the four Mon-Fayette projects with an estimated cost of more than $2 billion.

“The PA Turnpike Commission stands ready to deliver this project but only if the people of the region determine that it is a priority,” Compton said.

 

 

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Carl DeFebo, PTC, 717-645-2265