Jun 27, 2017 By Scott Beveridge Staff Writer Sbeveridge@observer-Reporter.Com 2 min read

Completing the Mon-Fayette Expressway in Allegheny County is back on the map.

Regional transportation planners, known as Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, voted June 26 to return the expressway’s final highway corridor to their transportation plan three months after opposition in Allegheny County threatened to drop the project.

“It’s not only for Washington County and the Mon Valley; it supports the region for now and into the future,” said Larry Maggi, an SPC member and chairman of Washington County commissioners. The state Turnpike Commission, which has been building the toll road as well as the Southern Beltway, suspended engineering and design work on the missing 14 miles of the expressway between Jefferson Hills and the Parkway East near Monroeville in March after the SPC tabled action on the project. The unfinished highway is estimated to cost $2.16 billion and would help to alleviate congestion at the Squirrel Hill Tunnels on the parkway, also known as Interstate 376.

The existing expressway stretches for 60 miles between Jefferson Hills and Morgantown, W.Va., including about 20 miles through eastern Washington County that connects to a massive Turnpike Commission bridge over the Monongahela River near Brownsville. The existing highway represents a $1.8 billion investment.

“The money is available now,” Maggi said, regarding the funding needed to move forward with the unfinished section of the expressway. “If it’s not used here, it’s going to Philadelphia.”

The vote involved returning the expressway to the region’s transportation improvement plan for the next four years. Returning the toll road passed in a 47-4 vote at the SPC’s June 26 meeting in Pittsburgh.

SPC serves 10 counties in the Pittsburgh region.