PITTSBURGH -- Mayor Tom Murphy did not reverse his position on the Mon-Fayette Expressway, even though he now supports a route he had opposed, City Planning Director Eloise Hirsh said Thursday.

Murphy has consistently objected to running the toll road through the Nine Mile Run section of Squirrel Hill, Glenwood and Hazelwood. But the mayor now has joined the Allegheny County commissioners in conditionally backing that route.

Hirsh said that does not mean Murphy has made a U-turn.

"He has always supported the Mon-Fayette Expressway, but he has a series of very specific concerns," Hirsh said. "What is terrific is that he and the commissioners have been able to say that they all support the northern alignment so long as those issues can be resolved."

The expressway is a $1.7 billion, 65-mile roadway that eventually will snake south from Pittsburgh through Washington and Fayette counties, ending at Interstate 68 in West Virginia. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is building the road.

There has been considerable debate over whether the expressway’s northern terminus should travel along the Monongahela River’s northern or southern banks. The southern option would require relocating nearly 8 miles of CSX railroad tracks from Homestead through the South Side.

Murphy voiced fears the northern alignment could harm plans for a $250 million, 750-unit housing development at Nine Mile Run, a new coke plant on the former LTV site in Hazelwood and other development prospects in the future.

But on Wednesday, Murphy and Allegheny County Commissioners Mike Dawida and Bob Cranmer sent a letter to turnpike commission Chairman James F. Malone endorsing the northern route.

"This type of cooperative effort is becoming more common between the city and county," Dawida said. "It’s the type of cooperation we need to move this region forward."

"It’s very good news," Cranmer said of the letter.

Minority Commissioner Larry Dunn did not sign the letter, but a spokesman for Dunn said he also supports the northern alignment.

The city and county’s continued support is contingent upon the expressway not competing with funding for other local major transportation initiatives, such as a light rail extension from Downtown to the North Shore.

The two governments also want to study the northern alignment’s impact on Hazelwood, Oakland, Nine Mile Run and Duck Hollow in the city and its effects on suburban areas such as Turtle Creek and the Penn Center area in Wilkins Township.

A new task force of city, county and turnpike commission officials will address what the letter terms those "critical concerns." The panel will be headed by Hirsh and Mulugetta Birru, executive director of the city Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Tom Fox, turnpike commission community involvement coordinator, reacted positively to the city-county communiqué.

"The whole idea of settling on any alignment involves obtaining consensus," Fox said. "Certainly the mayor concurring the position of the county commissioners and a number of other elected officials takes us a long way toward that goal."

Despite the apparent agreement on a preferred route, Fox said it would be sometime next year before the turnpike commission decides which alignment to submit to the Federal Highway Administration for approval.