Steady progress being made through Jefferson Hills on the Mon-Fayette Expressway
Steady progress is being made through Jefferson Hills on the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
Road projects are starting to blossom as we head into spring, but progress the Mon-Fayette Expressway project has hardly let up through the winter.
If you've been impacted by the detour around Coal Valley Road, there's an end in sight.
An aerial view from the KDKA Drone Team shows the progress being made on the expressway as it's been extended through Jefferson Hills, starting at the Rt. 51 interchange.
"It's moving along great," said Pa. Turnpike and Mon-Fayette Expressway spokesperson Renee Vid Colburn.
Colburn says the concrete being poured for the driving lanes is still off in the future, however.
"We're building all the bridges first and then we can connect everything from there," Colburn said.
And they've been working over the closed Coal Valley Road for a while now.
"We're anticipating that Coal Valley Road will be reopened in March, sometime," Colburn said.
Later this year, crews will be shutting down New England Road, but the timetable on that closure is going to be dependent on the weather.
"I'm knocking on wood right now because everything has been progressing smoothly," Colburn said. "We had great weather earlier in the construction process, so everything's on schedule right now."
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.
"Each section that has a tolling point will be open to traffic once it's completed," Colburn said.
Colburn says 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.
The Mon-Fayette Expressway won't be impacted the flow of federal dollars. It's funded by oil and gas tax money, not federal highway funding.
With that said, the funding for the highway is vulnerable to inflation on the costs of materials, so stay tuned on that front.
