Next Leg of MFX Ready in Late 2026

Work progressing on multiple sections of toll road in Jefferson Hills, West Mifflin

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
December 05, 2024
Posted in: State & Region

Craig White, an engineer working on the extension of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, points to construction areas on an aerial photo. (Photo courtesy Mon Yough Area Chamber of Commerce via Facebook)

The next portion of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, a roughly six-mile-long segment stretching from Route 51 to near the Allegheny County Airport in West Mifflin, could be open as soon as fall of 2026.

But the highway’s entrance into the Dravosburg and Duquesne areas will have to wait a little bit longer, representatives of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission told members of the Mon Yough Area Chamber of Commerce at a meeting on Wednesday morning. About 40 people attended.

The commission is still attempting to secure remaining pieces of right-of-way near Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, said Craig White, senior associate with Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson Inc., one of the engineering firms overseeing work on the project to extend the toll road otherwise known as Route 43.

One thing that won’t hold up further construction is a lack of funding. State Rep. Nick Pisciottano of West Mifflin said that a dedicated funding stream has been developed in Pennsylvania’s budget to complete the highway.

“There should never again be a point where the project just completely stops,” Pisciottano said.

Inflationary pressure and the rising costs of labor and construction material have forced some changes in the timeline, Pisciottano said.

But, he said, there will not be a repeat of what happened in 2010, when the Turnpike Commission announced that the remaining 14 miles of highway between Route 51 and the Parkway East would “probably never be constructed” and all work halted until 2017.

The two segments of highway currently under construction are valued at more than $379 million.

First proposed in the 1960s, the Mon-Fayette Expressway is envisioned as a bypass that connects the Parkway East near the Squirrel Hill Tunnel with Interstate 68 in West Virginia, providing high-speed highway access from Pittsburgh and Monroeville to Charleroi, Donora, Clairton, West Mifflin, Dravosburg and Duquesne.

Construction began in 1977. A 59-mile segment from West Virginia to Route 51 in Jefferson Hills is currently open.

“I believe it’s going to unlock a lot of economic opportunity for southeastern Allegheny County,” said Pisciottano, who has been elected to replace State Sen. Jim Brewster and will take his new office Jan. 7.

The Mon-Fayette “has had a long and tortured history, and it’s a long time overdue,” he said.

White estimated about “99 percent” of the necessary right-of-way has been secured in West Mifflin, Dravosburg and Duquesne. Utility lines also have been relocated.

Steel girders were erected in August for two new bridges to carry the highway over Route 51 near Large. (Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission photo)

Work is currently being done on Section 53A1, which begins at the existing Route 43 and Route 51 interchange in Jefferson Hills and continues to Coal Valley Road; and Section 53A2, which begins north of Coal Valley Road and continues to Camp Hollow Road in West Mifflin.

Preliminary design work is about 75 percent complete on the next leg, Section 53B1A, which picks up the route at Camp Hollow Road and continues to Richland Avenue (Dravosburg Hill), White said.

Interchanges are planned at Camp Hollow Road, Richland Avenue and just off of Route 837 at Overland Avenue in Duquesne.

Still, White said, engineers are having a difficult time threading the toll road through the heavily populated corridor with a minimum of disruption.

Constructing the highway between Dravosburg and Duquesne is “very complicated,” White said. “You’re wedged in between houses and power lines on each side.”

Designers have already made concessions, such as eliminating a grass median strip between the northbound and southbound lanes in Dravosburg to save space, he said.

Construction began more than a year ago to extend Route 43 from its current terminus in Large, Jefferson Hills. Two new bridges over Route 51 are nearing completion and the interchange has been extended.

Crews have moved more than 7 million cubic yards of dirt and begun construction of 11 new bridges, some of which are more than 200 feet high.

(Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission photo)

The work has further been complicated at times by the need to fill in voids left by century-old coal mines, correct drainage problems and stabilize loose soil, White said.

In response to questions from the audience, White and John Dzurko, a senior engineer and project manager for the Turnpike Commission, said that under “buy American” laws, all steel being used on the Mon-Fayette is being procured from American companies, including Nucor, W&W-AFCO, and High Steel in Lancaster County.

Dzurko said that while he did not have current information about traffic on the open segments of the Mon-Fayette, traffic on the newly opened section of the Southern Beltway — Route 576 between U.S. Route 22 and I-79 — was in line with the Turnpike Commission’s projections for the road.

Route 576 is ultimately designed to meet up with the Southern Beltway near Finleyville to provide a connection directly from the Mon Valley to Pittsburgh International Airport.

The Turnpike Commission is posting weekly updates on Mon-Fayette Expressway progress on its website at paturnpike.com/monfayette.

Jason Togyer is editor of Tube City Almanac and volunteer executive director of Tube City Community Media Inc.

Originally published December 05, 2024.

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