Pennsylvania Route 43
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Categories: Future roads | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | State highways in Pennsylvania | Toll roads in Pennsylvania | Limited access Pennsylvania state routes
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This article is about the current road. For the 1920s to 1940s road, see Pennsylvania Route 43 (1920s).
Pennsylvania Route 43, commonly known as the Mon/Fayette Expressway and officially the James J. Manderino Highway, is a 66 mile four-lane highway of the Pennsylvania Turnpike system, with a small section in West Virginia designated West Virginia Route 43. Approximately 25 miles of this road have been completed. An additional 41 miles are planned to connect Interstate 68 in Morgantown, West Virginia to Interstate 376 in Pittsburgh and Monroeville . The highway, of which two sections are complete, is signed as Turnpike 43. The short (4 mile) section in West Virginia will be signed as WV 43 and also signed as "To Pennsylvania Turnpike 43" (northbound) or "To I-68" (southbound). There is currently no funding available to complete the section between Jefferson Hills and Pittsburgh/Monroeville. The Uniontown-Brownsville link is currently under construction, as is the West Virginia section. The Mon/Fayette Expressway, which is named after the Monongahela River and Fayette County (the highway itself is named after Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives James J. Manderino, who sponsored the Turnpike western expansion bill for its construction), was originally begun in the mid 1980s by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and was transferred over to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in 1987 to be operated as a toll facility. Unlike the Pennsylvania Turnpike itself and the Northeast Extension connecting Norristown and Scranton, which use long-distance tickets, Turnpike 43, like all of the western expansions of the system, uses fixed tolls collected at regular intervals. The West Virginia section, which is planned to be open in 2011, will not be tolled.
Exit listHistoryThe current PA Route 43 is the second Pennsylvania state highway to carry this number. Prior to the mid-1950's, the Schuylkill Expressway (present-day I-76 between Valley Forge and Philadelphia was also signed as PA Route 43, but after the Interstate Highway Act became law, it was redesignated as I-80S, later becoming I-76 in 1974. Mon/Fayette ExpresswayThe Mon/Fayette Expressway was originally proposed in the 1950s as a highway linking coke- and steel-producing towns along the Monongahela River Valley. Since the collapse of the steel industry in the area in the early 1980s, however, the project has been re-cast as a potential tool for economic re-development. Following its assignation as a Turnpike Expansion Project in 1986, it is now planned to be a toll road, rather than a free limited-access highway. In the 1990s, the project was expanded to include a link between Route 43 near Finleyville and the Pittsburgh International Airport. This connector is commonly referred to as the Southern Beltway. The project has cost over $1.2 billion to date in design and construction costs; the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission estimates that the remaining sections of the Mon/Fayette Expressway and the Southern Beltway will cost an additional $4.2 billion. This cost estimate has been adjusted upwards in every quarter since the Turnpike took responsibility for the project. Funding for Turnpike expansion projects is currently provided by Pennsylvania through portions of the Oil Company Franchise Tax and various vehicle registration fees. Income from these revenue streams has been fully bonded through 2030, and without a new tax it is unlikely that construction and planning will proceed on the sections that have not yet been built. If it is completed, the four-lane toll road will serve as a north-south alternative to parallel Interstate 79, and will also provide a bypass for Interstate 376 around the Squirrel Hill Tunnel in Pittsburgh. The toll road would also allow direct connections, via the planned I-576 (the Southern Beltway), to the Pittsburgh International Airport on the western extreme of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The completed sections of the road are built to present-day Interstate Highway standards, similar to that of Delaware Route 1, but the completed project is not planned to become part of the Interstate Highway System like the parent Turnpike. It has been proposed though that the new I-576 use the Mon/Fayette route to reconnect with I-376 in Allegheny County, so that the northern section of the route could one day be named I-576 after its junction with the interstate near Clairton, Pennsylvania. MiscellaneaAn expansion of historic Kennywood Amusement Park hinges on the completion of the Mon-Fayette Expressway. When the expressway is completed, Kennywood will expand the park from 92 acres to 140 acres. A hotel, waterpark, and a new signature thrillride will added during the expansion. Steps are already underway to buy the land, but without the expressway, the project's future could be unknown. External links
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