Construction of the next phase of the Southern Beltway around Pittsburgh International Airport has been discussed for decades, but timing is everything. After that long wait, the highway’s construction couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
The 13-mile, $700 million toll road project coincides with the construction of Shell Chemical Appalachia’s multibillion dollar petrochemical plant in nearby Beaver County, which will use ethane from wet natural gas to create ethylene to make plastic pellets. The road will offer an easier, more direct route from the airport to the chemical plant as well as the Southpointe complex in Washington County.
“Sometimes things work out well,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, noting the project was discussed long before he was elected to County Council in 1999. “[The new highway] really does play into the development of the Shell’s cracker plant and anything that spins off from that.”
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Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission awarded a contract for construction of the first leg of the highway from Route 22 to Quicksilver Road in Robinson Township, Washington County, and opened bids last week for the next part. The commission expects to issue more than a half dozen contracts over the next three years with a goal of opening the roadway from Route 22 to Interstate 79 by the end of 2019.
“It would be too much work for any one contractor,” said Mike Houser, the turnpike’s senior engineer on the project. “That’s why we’re doing the work as the rights of way and the design become available.”
Independence Excavating of Cleveland was awarded the $90.85 million contract for the first section and could begin work by the end of January, Mr. Houser said. The company’s initial work will involve relocating about 5 million cubic yards of dirt — each about the size of a refrigerator — to eliminate hills and fill in valleys before it can begin road construction.
Over the 13-mile stretch, contractors will move as much as 15 million cubic yards.
“All of that dirt will stay mostly on the project site,” Mr. Houser said. “You’re just trying to balance out the path and level it off. That’s really why we’re moving so much dirt.”
As general contractor, Independence will oversee construction of the first section of the highway, which at one end will join with two parallel bridges over Route 22 that were completed last year. That section also will have three other bridges.
Although parts of the project will be finished at various times, the highway won’t open until all of it is ready for traffic.
“When Independence is done with this contract, that section will be complete — everything from moving the dirt to lining and striping the new road, the lights, signs, everything,” Mr. Houser said.
This stretch will extend from Route 22 to I-79 and pass through Canonsburg, Houston, Midway, McDonald, Robinson, Mount Pleasant and Cecil in Washington County, and Oakdale, South Fayette and North Fayette in Allegheny County.
The trickiest part of the 13-mile stretch will be the connection with I-79, which won’t go out for bids until February 2018. It will involve excavating under the existing highway and building twin bridges, one at a time, over the valley so the new roadway can pass underneath I-79.
Additionally, work on that interchange will have to be done without closing access to the nearby National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Cecil. As a result, the plan is to build a parallel bridge to replace an existing one that leads to the cemetery.
This is the second of three components of the Southern Beltway. The first, six miles from Interstate 376 near Pittsburgh International Airport to Route 22 in northern Washington County, is known as the Findlay Connector and opened in 2006.
The last segment, still under design, will cover six miles from I-79 to the Mon-Fayette Expressway and is expected to cost more than $800 million.
Overall, Mr. Fitzgerald said the new highway should help the region continue developing the area around the airport as well as draw new businesses into Southpointe and land around the Shell plant.
“It gives us an advantage when we can go to a developer and show them the road system we have available,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1470.
First Published: December 18, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
Updated: December 24, 2016, 4:11 a.m.
