Dream of 'nicer commute' genesis of Route 28
More than 50 years ago, Alexander Lindsay marched into Pittsburgh Mayor David L. Lawrence's office and delivered a sales pitch.
Lindsay, an attorney who lived in South Buffalo and worked in the city, needed support for his proposal to have a highway built connecting the Alle-Kiski Valley with downtown. He reached out to every heavyweight politician he could in an effort to make that dream a reality.
According to Lindsay's son, Al Lindsay Jr., the pitch didn't immediately resonate with the mayor.
"David Lawrence's reaction was that any road running up to the Allegheny Valley wouldn't have a favorable impact on the city and that he had no interest in it.
"Well, my dad informed him that a four-lane expressway called the Keystone Shortway -- which would eventually become I-80 -- would be built across the northern tier of the state. He said because it would bypass Pittsburgh, it would do the city no good unless a connector was built.
"The way my dad would tell the story, Mayor Lawrence's reaction was immediate. He recognized the significance of the project and said, 'Sign me up.' "
Lindsay managed to enlist the support of numerous other state leaders in his campaign to get the expressway built. His efforts came to fruition with the start of construction in 1963.
Twenty-five years ago this month, crews completed the final section of the highway, a 3.2-mile stretch between East Deer and Harrison many referred to as "the missing link."
Despite the original plan, the expressway begins in Pittsburgh and ends in Kittanning. Route 28 crosses I-80, but only as a two-lane road.
Some believe the expressway eventually will be extended to I-80.
Lower Burrell Mayor Don Kinosz, who has been pushing for a bridge to be built connecting the expressway with the New Kensington area, suggested that running the highway to I-80 could happen within the next 20 years.
"That would help open up this whole northern area," he said. "All of those places to the north would see nice growth opportunities."
Saying the highway has had a tremendous economic impact on the Valley, Lindsay Jr. said, "Imagine how much more of an impact it would have if it connected with I-80."
A PennDOT official, however, said the possibility isn't on the highway agency's radar.
"The bottom line is that there's nothing in the regional plan to make a major capital improvement like that," said Dan Cessna, PennDOT's District 11 executive. "All of our long-term plans are required to be fiscally constrained."
PennDOT spokesman Jim Struzzi noted the highway agency has invested roughly $163 million in the expressway over the past five years, from resurfacing from Harmar to Creighton to improving the Etna interchange.
PennDOT's most recent project involves widening Route 28 in the area near the 31st and 40th Street bridges and reconfiguring the interchanges there. When that project wraps up in 2014, at a cost of $120 million, there will be emergency pull-offs for fender-benders, a median barrier to prevent head-on collisions and no traffic lights between Pittsburgh and Kittanning.
"We have clearly made a considerable investment in that corridor over the past decade," Struzzi said.
Lindsay Jr. said his father considered the construction of the expressway his greatest accomplishment. A lengthy portion of the highway is named the "Alexander H. Lindsay Highway."
Lindsay Jr. said his father was aware development north of the city would follow the highway's construction and touted that potential benefit as he lobbied for its construction. But, he quipped, "In reality, he just thought it would make a nicer commute for him."
Additional Information:
About the expressway
The Allegheny Valley Expressway was completed in three phases: Pittsburgh to East Deer by 1977; Harrison to Kittanning by 1973; and East Deer to Harrison in 1985.
The overall building cost was $143 million. The original plan called for the limited-access, four-lane highway to reach Interstate 80 at Brookville, Jefferson County.
The final phase of the Route 28 expressway from East Deer to Harrison, often called 'the missing link,' cost $35 million.
