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Pittsburgh's difficulty with the Mon Valley Expressway


UrbaniDesDev

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There is a mjor battle growing over the entrance of the Mon valley Expressway into the city. I believe I have a solution.

Iwould keep the existing proposal of the spur to Monroeville. This is roughly just East of the Allegheny Airport heading North East crossing th Mon just East of Braddock where the antiquated Tri-Boro expressway Right of way exists now. This seems to be already set. It is the spur running into the city that seems to be the problem.

The current proposal seems determined to run along the river front. This is a mistake. This is a huge mistake. It would either be running from The Tri-Boro through Braddock, Rankin, Swissvale, Hazelwood and South Oakland then connecting to I 376. Can anyone really imagine traffic from an entire other Interstate pouring onto the alreadyy overcrwded I 376. Its impossible to widen because of terrain and new development already growing around the river front.

The other alternative would be along the South Shore of the Mon. Can anyone see a freeway running throught the highly successfull Waterfront at Homestead. NO I say, NO Way!

There was an alternative that was proposed called the green route. It basically formed a "Y". Freeway along the North shore of the Mon connecting to the Mon Valley Expressway at Hazelwood/Glenwood Bridge. The Mon Exp. would follow Baldwin Road to connect to the existing Mon exp.

I say use this right of way from the existing Mon Exp. along the Baldwin Road corridor. But the expressway ends before it reaches the river fornt. It would turn into a wide boulevard that will passs through Hazelwood using existing Second Avenue for Westbound traffic and a new wide boulevard following Gloster Street through Hazelwood. Opening development opportunities on both side of the rail lines in Hazelwood.

This would also include a wider Carson Street that is in the works with coordination of The South Side Works. The reconfiguring of the mess that is the intersection of Carson, Sandcastle Drive, Baldwin Road, Glenwood Bridge, Glass Run Road, Mifflin Road and Homestead's 8th Ave.

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I just did some fairly extensive research on the Mon-Faye for a term paper and talked to a variety of the stakeholders on their opinions. I don't know about the battle actually growing anymore since the current plan has been approved and slated for development. That battle is as good as over. The only fight left is to ensure that this project starves to death for lack of funding and given its collosal pricetag and the lack of acceptable revenue sources to fund it, chances are that it will just die a long quiet death. So that's the whole idea right now. If there's a lower impact alternative, too bad so sad, they wouldn't give them millions of dollars for another environmental impact study, its just not how it works. IMO I wouldn't worry about it for another 60 years.

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Yeah. I emailed someone at PennFuture (the group that did the alternative Citizen's Plan) and she told me that right now there is no funding for the Mon-Fay. So I am keeping my fingers crossed for the "quiet death" of this project.

I still don't even see where there is room for a new highway in south Oakland along the riverfront. Between the parkway and second ave., and the development along there... I just do not see room. It would have to be elevated, which would be very unsightly.

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