Port Authority Transit officials could have a hearing by the end of the year to take public comment about a proposed bus ramp that would connect bus traffic from the Mon Valley to the extended Martin Luther King Jr. Busway.
A total of six homes might have to be demolished or moved to build the ramp on South Braddock Avenue, according to Bob Grove, a PAT spokesman.
Grove said three homes on McKim Street and three homes on South Braddock Avenue in Swissvale could be affected.
The addresses of the homes were not available Friday, Grove said.
Although Grove said PAT's plans are under review by federal transportation officials, it is a bit too early to say whether the homes would have to be razed to make way for the project.
Grove said PAT expects comments on the plan soon from federal officials. Grove said because the project manager for the bus ramp was out of town Friday, he could not provide a cost estimate for the ramp work.
PAT is spending $63 million to extend the busway from Wilkinsburg to the Rankin/Swissvale border. The busway extension is expected to be completed in 2002.
Grove said should the South Braddock Avenue ramp be built, construction on it would begin in 2003, after the busway extension is scheduled to be completed.
The busway has been a source of controversy, spawning a federal court lawsuit from community groups in Rankin and Swissvale and complaints from Edgewood Borough, through which the busway will pass.
Opponents say the fact that PAT is spending hundreds of millions of dollars for a light rail extension in the South Hills and a light rail connection to the North Shore is proof that the authority is slighting the eastern suburbs.
The lawsuit claims that PAT is practicing racial discrimination because there is a higher percentage of black residents in the eastern suburbs than in the South Hills or North Hills.
But the extension will do a lot of good for Swissvale and neighboring Rankin, according to George Tkach, the mayor of Rankin.
Tkach said residents of Rankin have been waiting for the busway extension since at least 1992, when it was supported by the Rankin Planning Commission.
Tkach, who was a member of the planning commission at that time, said he rode the bus for years when he worked in Pittsburgh and knows how difficult it has been for buses to wade through traffic in Swissvale and Edgewood.
"You have to ride the bus to know what it can do for you," he said.
Tkach said, historically, riders had to wait until their bus got to the busway in Wilkinsburg before buses could travel at high speeds into Pittsburgh.
Now, job-seekers in Rankin and Swissvale will have their commute radically shortened by the busway's extension, he said.
Tkach estimates that the busway extension will shave 20 to 25 minutes from the average commute time of bus riders trying to get to the city from Rankin.
Because of the ongoing dispute and lack of cooperation between Edgewood and PAT, there will be no busway stop in Edgewood, according to Grove.
