Mon-Fayette Expressway project could stall at Dravosburg without more money

The Mon-Fayette Expressway, the highway pushed for decades as the key to rebuilding the once thriving center of the steel industry, is facing yet another hurdle before the next segment can be completed.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike won’t be able to finish the southern section of the long-awaited highway unless the state Legislature provides another source of revenue.

The agency started construction in early 2023 on the 8-mile stretch of the $1.3 billion project from Route 51 in Jefferson Hills to Route 837 in Duquesne. The project has been broken into seven segments from south to north that will be constructed under separate contracts. Two parts are under construction and the third was approved this week to go out for bids.

But Richard Dreher, chief financial officer for the turnpike, said this week the agency won’t be able to build the other four sections — from Dravosburg to Duquesne — until another source of money is identified for the project. State Sen. Nick Pisciottano, D-West Mifflin, said the problem isn’t unexpected, and he anticipates the Legislature will provide another funding source in the next couple of years so the project isn’t delayed.

Right now, the turnpike is under orders from the Legislature under Act 61 of 1985 to use a portion of the state’s oil franchise tax funds for special capital projects such as the Mon-Fayette Expressway. The same source was used to pay for construction of the Southern Beltway that opened in 2022 straddling the Allegheny-Washington County border near Pittsburgh International Airport at a cost of $900 million.

Due to increasing construction costs and funds from the oil franchise tax not growing, Dreher said, the turnpike will reach the limit of debt it can afford to pay off with the existing funding after the $177.5 million Dravosburg segment.

“We would not be able to pay any more debt with the money from the oil franchise tax,” Dreher said. “We’re working with the General Assembly to see if they can provide another source of funding. We would not be able to move the project forward any more without more funding.”

The turnpike is facing the same problem with its share of the oil franchise tax that the state Department of Transportation is facing with funding from the gasoline tax: A reduction in driving, more fuel-efficient vehicles and the growth of electric cars has reduced the revenue generated. In the case of the franchise tax, Dreher said, revenue peaked before the pandemic at about $142 million a year but now averages about $125 million.

Dreher said that provides enough money to cover debt payments on the existing work through the segment of the Mon-Fayette to Dravosburg. Those payments last through 2045, so the turnpike can’t borrow any more money without another way to pay off additional debt, he said.

Because the Dravosburg segment won’t be finished until 2029, there is some time for the for the state to find an additional source of money without delaying the project.

Pisciottano said the need for additional funding to finish the southern section of the expressway has been expected and is just another chapter in the “long and tortured history” of the project first talked about in the 1960s. The initial design around the turn of the century would have cost more than twice as much and included a leg into Pittsburgh along the Oakland side of the Monongahela River until then-Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy and leaders of hospitals and universities opposed the plans.

It was shelved for about 10 years because of the high cost, then redesigned to eliminate the Pittsburgh wing and substantially narrow the medians so it would require less property from the small towns along its path.

“The last couple of sections were always going to be the toughest,” Pisciottano said of the southern segment of the expressway. “I don’t want people to think it’s an alarm bell going off.

“We are aware the turnpike is going to need more money. It’s always going to be a step-by-step process. We’re committed to getting the project finished.”

The need for more money comes at a time when passage of the state budget has gone beyond the June 30 deadline because there are a lot of areas pushing for more funding. That includes social services such as Medicaid, which is facing severe cuts at the federal level, public transit, and funding for roads and bridges.

“I will say the one at the federal level will be hugely impactful,” Pisciottano said. “We’re on it, and we not going to let that [expressway] project stall.”

 Because the next section to Dravosburg won’t be finished for four years, the new source of funding may not be identified immediately.

This isn’t the first sign of potential financial problems completing the expressway. After the southern segment is done, plans call for a northern section that crosses the Monongahela River at Duquesne and joins the Parkway East in Monroeville. More than two years ago, the turnpike decided not to begin designing that section yet because it didn’t have the money for construction.

RELATED STORY: Turnpike to seek bids for next section of Mon-Fayette Expressway from West Mifflin to Dravosburg.