PITTSBURGH PA :Brunot Island toll bridge

The new Airport Corridor will probably consist of a 2x2-lane toll motorway extending from PA-60/PA-60-BUS IC at the eastern end of the airport property 11km virtually due east to the Ohio River south of McKees Rocks, then span the river with a twin-span 2x3-lane bridge going over the middle of Brunot Island.

On the east bank of the Ohio river the roadway would immediately join PA-65, which is of motorway standard 5km southeast into the Stadium and north bank of the Allegheny R and over it via existing Ft Duquesne and I-579 bridges into downtown.

Transit sharing the right of way could consist of anything from provision for express bus through rail to maglev (being studied under a FRA grant).

Lew Villotti project manager at SWPC told us that one idea is that the Brunot Is bridge could be separated off from the rest of the road as a standalone toll project. Preliminary traffic/revenue studies suggest the whole roadway could support bond sales to the extent of $250m to $300m. As a critical link in the corridor the bridge itself might be a choke point at which to collect tolls.

Major problem for the project is the past failure to reserve a right of way, especially at the airport end. Land and property acquisition costs, including some recently completed high quality commercial buildings have recently soared and are put in the $200m to $250m range. Construction costs are probably split about evenly between the bridge and the corridor construction to the west of it. The road involves some deep cuts and fills, an IC with I-79 and possibly intermediate ICs to service local traffic.

The new airport link would provide major timesavings to the north bank and northern suburbs at all times, and to the downtown in the extended peak hours. The existing “Parkway West” route is mostly just 2x2-lanes from I-79 eastward to downtown, has long steep grades. These sections plus the narrow 2x2 lane tubes of the Fort Pitt Tunnels and the downtown bridges and ramps are serious limits on capacity. These would be extremely expensive and disruptive to widen.

The new airport corridor requires a pair of 300m (1,000') spans over two river shipping channels on either side of Brunot Is and 450m over the island itself. Clearance has to be 21m (70') for river barge traffic, no difficulty because the west bank is about at this elevation anyway. Trips from the center to the airport area (30km) currently can take over an hour for extended periods in the mornings and afternoons and the route is highly vulnerable to breakdowns and accidents.

“We’d envisage the new route probably charging a premium toll during those rush hours,” said Dwight Schock of the Michael Baker company who has studied the project for some years and who is a member of the SWPC task force on it.

Villotti says his committee is not yet clear what legal entity should manage the project – the port authority, a special purpose corridor agency, the DOT, a special improvement district with taxing powers, or Allegheny County. The PA Turnpike is fully committed and not interested. One possibility would be to concession the bridge and have the state DOT build the road and transitway, or the two might be packaged together. They are tossing it around.

Villotti says he’s now “quite optimistic” that the project will be put on official area plans and gain local support. He says it is “pretty certain” that there will be a co-mingling of government and investor funds. No way could it be built without tolls, but tolls alone won’t build it either. (Lew Villotti 412 391 5590x332, D Schock 412 269 6375 TRnl#20 Oct 97 p1)