Open house held to discuss progress on Mon-Fayette Expressway project

Pennsylvania Turnpike officials held an open house event Wednesday night for community members to get updates about the ongoing Mon-Fayette Expressway project.

The open house was held Wednesday night at the Holiday Inn Express hotel in West Mifflin where developers discussed plans for the third section of the southern portion of the project that will extend the expressway from Route 51 in Jefferson Hills to the Parkway East in Monroeville.

Developers said the goal of the project is to ultimately have a way to quickly travel from the West Virginia state line to the east side of Pittsburgh.

"It should make travel getting into the city a lot quicker," said Matt Burd, Assistant Chief Engineer for Construction with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. "Obviously there is a toll component to it, but it should ease a lot of congestion on local roads as well."

The Turnpike Commission says the other two sections of the project are ahead of schedule. 

Over the past several years, steady progress has made on the expressway as crews have continued working on extending the highway beyond Jefferson Hills and through the Mon Valley.

When will drivers be able to use the new sections of the Mon-Fayette Expressway? 

Unlike the Southern Beltway that opened in 2022, drivers will get to enjoy the progress of the Mon-Fayette Expressway as it's constructed.

The first section of the expressway from Rt. 51 in Jefferson Hills to Camp Hollow Road in West Mifflin is expected to be open to traffic around the end of 2026.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has broken up the stretch of expressway from Jefferson Hills to Duquesne into sections -- and they work on each each section while getting funding for the next section.