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A bus comes down the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway at sunset, as seen from the 28th Street Bridge in 2013.
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Extending East Busway from Swissvale to East Pittsburgh could cost $549 million

Post-Gazette

Extending East Busway from Swissvale to East Pittsburgh could cost $549 million

Extending the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway from Swissvale to East Pittsburgh would take nine years and cost as much as $549 million, according to a study the Port Authority released Friday.

Tacking on a direct connection to the proposed Mon-Fayette Expressway and establishing a Monroeville station would add as much as $155 million to the project, the study by Gannett Fleming Inc. of Green Tree said.

The study evaluated seven options for the proposed extension — including one that would have used an elevated busway up the Thompson Run valley to take buses to Monroeville — but rejected them for reasons ranging from cost to engineering concerns.

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The recommended option would extend the busway 2.9 miles from Swissvale along the Norfolk Southern Railway line that divides Braddock and North Braddock to a station on Braddock Avenue in East Pittsburgh near Keystone Commons, the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. plant. It would include stations at Sixth Street and Verona Street in Braddock.

At current prices, the project would cost about $371 million. But the study estimated the project would take nine years to complete and cost $549 million at 2026 prices.

The 230-page study also recommended the authority consider building ramps to link the busway directly to the proposed extension of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, scheduled to begin construction in 2020. Establishing a major park-and-ride facility near the busway extension to encourage commuters to use public transit was a major selling point for those who supported the 14-mile, $2 billion extension of the highway from Jefferson Hills to Monroeville during a Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission meeting in June.

A direct link to the expressway and a Monroeville station would cost an additional $105 million at current costs, or $155 million in 2026. Buses would travel with regular traffic on the expressway, not on exclusive lanes.

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The study projects ridership would increase by 1,629 passengers a day by 2035 with the extension to East Pittsburgh. Another 809 passengers would ride with the expressway connection to Monroeville.

Now, 34,657 use the busway daily.

It was unclear whether the busway extension is a high priority for the authority, which received the report over the summer and shared it with its board recently. It already is involved in a proposal to build a $195 million Bus Rapid Transit system between Downtown and Oakland, which could begin construction in 2019 if it receives federal funding.

Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph wouldn’t say whether the busway extension is a priority and would be pursued immediately.

“The report offers a great deal of information for us to consider and we’ll take some time to assess it before making any decisions,” he said. “There’s no specific timetable.”

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who oversees the agency, said he would “love to do both [the busway and BRT] together.” He noted the replacement of the Kenmawr Avenue bridge between Rankin and Swissvale, at the end of the current busway, is scheduled to begin next year and is designed to allow the busway extension.

“We want to pursue it sooner rather than later,” he said of the busway extension. “There’s obviously a priority and pecking order that the state and federal governments have to go through that we don’t have any control over.”

Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.

First Published: October 27, 2017, 11:27 p.m.

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A bus comes down the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway at sunset, as seen from the 28th Street Bridge in 2013.  (Post-Gazette )
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