Mar 21, 2017 3 min read

Which will happen first: The Mon-Fayette Expressway will be completed, or humanity will make the six-month journey to Mars and successfully plant its boots on the Red Planet?

Right now, we’re putting our money on Mars.

The idea of extending the Mon-Fayette Expressway first became a gleam in somebody’s eye at least a quarter-century ago, and it’s still just a gleam in that person’s eye, though they now might have a slightly expanded waistline and a little more gray up on top. And it’s no closer to getting beyond the “gleam” stage following a Monday decision by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission to delay a vote on the potential extension so its members can look at whether the projected $2.1 billion it would take to complete it would be better spent on other projects throughout the region.

When it was first hatched back in the long-gone days of the 20th century, it was envisioned the extension of the Mon-Fayette Expressway would provide a booster shot to the Mon Valley and its beleaguered economy, reducing travel times and luring development.

However, commission members, who hail from 10 counties in the region, are now wondering whether extending the Mon-Fayette Expressway an additional 13 miles by joining Route 51 in Jefferson Hills with the Parkway West in Monroeville, would deliver on its promises. They are asking if it’s a project that is past its sell-by date and if Mon Valley residents would be better served by something more immediate, not a highway project that will take additional decades to complete.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Clifford Levine, a member of the commission from Allegheny County, said, “I would like to hear whether highways being built in the last 10 years anywhere in the United States have actually helped this sort of older manufacturing-based communities or do they just allow traffic to bypass them and go on to greener pastures.”

Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi was at the meeting, emphasizing his support, and Fayette County Commissioner Vincent Vicites urged the commission to “stay the course,” according to the P-G. “We thought everybody agreed on this over the years, that this would help improve our region, particularly the outlying counties,” he said. “If this is not completed, then we will truly not be a region connected with our highways.”

Both Maggi and Vicites have a study published last summer on their side. The Washington, D.C.-based transportation research group TRIP found extending the Mon-Fayette Expressway would add more than 19,000 jobs and boost mobility and access for Mon Valley residents.

No question, this region has a cornucopia of transportation and infrastructure needs, whether it’s roads that carry far more traffic than they were ever designed to handle, or highways that need another lane or two, such as I-79 near Southpointe. Sure, funds for these projects are limited, but the Mon-Fayette Expressway extension has been promised for years, and its potential benefits have been established. Even if those benefits won’t be realized until 2037 or beyond, it’s past time for this project to move off the drawing board.