Category: Commentary/Editorial || By

(Third in a series of ruminations on the Mon-Fayette Expressway.)

Editor's Note: I'm not "anti-highway." Longtime readers know that I love to drive.

I'm also not "anti-development." If Tube City Almanac has a bias, it's toward building more shiny, new things in the Mon Valley.

Finally: I'm just a simple country doctor reporter, not a moon-shuttle conductor statistician or civil engineer. My conclusions and comparisons may be completely inaccurate. Caveat emptor.

. . .

Before we get into this installment, I'd thought I'd point out a couple of comments from Monday's Almanac.

First, Andrea Boykowycz of PennFuture --- an outspoken opponent of the Mon-Fayette Expressway --- says my math is off. Based on current traffic levels along the Parkway East, I "guesstimated" that 60,000 to 70,000 vehicles might use the MFX in Allegheny County.

Andrea cites a Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission report that says it's more like 50,000 vehicles a day. Also, she says that as of last March, the cost of completing the legs of the MFX north of Route 51 had climbed to $3.8 billion.

Naturally, that all makes the math behind the MFX considerably worse than I suggested.

. . .

Second, Alert Reader R.D. points out something obvious --- that areas in the Pittsburgh metro area that have the healthiest business districts --- like Monroeville, Cranberry and Robinson --- all have direct interstate highway access:

I was already working in Cranberry just a few weeks before the Parkway North opened. In addition to cutting my commute time significantly, the effect on local business, home construction and tax revenues was unbelievably dramatic.

By the time I left in 1995, development was completely out of control ... Would that we in the Mon Valley should have such problems.

. . .

It's impossible not to see a connection between the growth of Cranberry Township and the completion of I-279.

(We're very, very loosely measuring development in terms of population. A better measurement might be assessed property valuation, or property tax revenues, but those numbers aren't easy to come by or compare.)

The highway opened in 1989. According to the U.S. Census, Cranberry's population went from 11,066 in 1980 to 14,816 in 1990 to 23,625 in 2000.

Cranberry's boom actually starts before I-279, in the 1970s. Between 1970 and 1980 (the time period that I-79 was completed) Cranberry's population more than doubled, from 4,873 to 11,066.

The latest U.S. Census estimate puts the township's population at more than 27,000.

. . .

Highway access obviously helped make Cranberry more attractive for development.

If highway access is one of the main causes of development, then Ross Township should have experienced a similar population boom. It's also on I-279, and it's much closer to Pittsburgh.

But Ross's population has been generally flat since 1970 --- stuck at about 33,000.

(On the other hand, McCandless Township --- which isn't accessible from I-279, and must be reached via congested and dangerous Route 19 and "McKnightmare Road" --- went from about 22,000 people in 1970 to 29,000 in 2000.)

. . .

This all implies that something more complicated than "highway access" drove development of Cranberry.

Geography is one factor. Butler County's terrain is ideally suited for development. The county's landscape was formed by glaciers, not rivers. Cranberry is marked by rolling hills rather than the steep slopes that characterize the Mon Valley.

Another factor was the decline in agriculture in Pennsylvania after World War II, which left many farms available for development.

According to the Penn State Cooperative Extension, Butler County had 2,274 farms covering 215,101 acres in 1959. By 2001, it had 1,260 farms covering 127,500 acres.

All of that land was pristine and "shovel ready."

In Ross Township, the areas that were easy to develop were already "built up" by the 1960s, so growth was marginal or slower.

. . .

Even having vacant farm land and an interstate highway (or two!) is no guarantee of development. Let's look at Washington County, which sits at the junction of two cross-country interstates --- I-70 and I-79 --- and which is the home of Southpointe.

Interstate 70 in Pennsylvania was completed in 1968. Interstate 79 in Washington and Greene counties was complete by 1978.

At the same time, Washington County had a lot of farm land available for development. According to the Penn State Extension, active farms in Washington declined from 317,729 acres in 1959 to 200,000 in 2001.

The combination of vacant farm land and highways should have logically resulted in a major population boom for Washington County.

Instead, Washington County lost population --- from 217,000 to 205,000.

. . .

Let's focus on two specific Washington County communities that are similar to McKeesport in many ways.

The city of Washington was once a manufacturing hub and a corporate headquarters (Washington Steel and Jessop Steel).

Nearby Canonsburg was the home of Fort Pitt Bridge Works, Pennsylvania Transformer and other companies. Like McKeesport, both communities date to the late 18th century.

Washington has multiple exits on I-70 and I-79, but its population declined from 20,000 people in 1970 to 15,000 in 2000.

As for Canonsburg, despite its location directly on I-79 and its proximity to Southpointe, its population went from 11,000 people to 8,600.

. . .

Highway construction does not seem to lead directly to growth for urban communities like Canonsburg or Washington.

Indeed, if towns like Canonsburg and Washington are any indication, highways can't even keep existing people or businesses from leaving.

Other factors --- including land availability --- are just as important.

. . .

And the happy combination of factors that made Cranberry easy to develop just don't exist in the Mon-Yough area.

The Mon Valley lacks large tracts of flat, unused land (some parts of Elizabeth, Forward and Union townships might be the exceptions). Most of the buildable land is already occupied.

Of the vacant land available, it's mainly in old industrial sites that are contaminated with pollution, criss-crossed with utility lines, or partially blocked by active railroad tracks. These brownfields have serious liabilities and headaches.

If the competition for development is between "vacant farm land with highways" and "old urban communities with highways," local evidence suggests that communities with vacant farm land will probably win --- but as Washington County's history seems to indicate, that's not guaranteed, either.

. . .

It's true that the Mon-Fayette Expressway would definitely make it easier for existing residents and businesses to get to and from Pittsburgh and I-70.

Whether the cost ($158 million per mile) is worth that convenience is a philosophical question.

But it's difficult to make the argument for the MFX --- at least for the portion that would serve the Mon-Yough area --- on a purely economic basis.