Mon/Fayette Expressway & Southern Beltway Projects

Fast Facts (Second Quarter 2000)

q Commonwealth/Turnpike’s current financial commitment is $1.041 billion. Sum includes $1 billion for the MFE and $41 million for the S. Beltway.

q $1 billion is to finish the Pa. leg of the Mason Dixon Link (opened on March 1, 2000) and the I-70 to Rt. 51 Project (by late 2001). Balance of the MFE commitment is to advance the Rt. 51-to-I-376 and Uniontown-to-Brownsville Area Projects through environmental clearance (Federal Highway Administration approval), final design and right-of-way acquisition. Target dates for environmental clearance are Third Quarter 2000 for Uniontown-to-Brownsville Area Project and Third Quarter 2002 for Pittsburgh leg.

q $41 million is to advance the Findlay Connector through final design and the two other Southern Beltway projects through environmental clearance. Target dates for environmental clearances are First Quarter 2002 for the Route 22-to-I-79 Project and First Quarter 2003 for the I-79-to-MFE Project.

q Pa. General Assembly has established two streams of state funding. Since 1992, PTC has been receiving 14 percent of the revenue generated by the Pa. Oil Company Franchise Tax, amounting to about $40 million a year. An additional $28 million annually (a fixed amount), from vehicle registration revenues, was committed in Act 3 of 1997. PTC netted $525 million from a sale of Oil Franchise bonds. Annual debt service is $34.8 million over 30 years (1999-2028). Vehicle registration revenue has not been leveraged.

q To date, nearly $53 million in federal funds has been committed to help the PTC develop the MFE. This includes $23.8 million from the 1991 U.S. Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), $25 million authorized for High Priority Projects in ISTEA’s “successor,” the six-year Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century (TEA-21) signed into law June 9, 1998, and a $4 million discretionary grant for Year One of the five-year National Corridor Planning and Development Program that is part of TEA-21.

q TEA-21 designated the MFE and S. Beltway projects as “high priority corridors,” making them eligible to compete on an annual basis for these discretionary funds. MFE would be approximately 65 miles. S. Beltway would be approximately 30 miles.

q West Virginia has reimbursed the PTC $3.7 million for environmental clearances obtained for the Mason Dixon Link and has received a $3 million discretionary grant from the National Corridor Planning and Development Program to help it build the four-miles of MFE south of the Pa. line. West Virginia Department of Transportation’s Division of Highways has begun construction. A completion date is uncertain.