The late Frank Irey Jr. liked to make reference to a newspaper story in The Daily Independent about a meeting by local leaders calling for construction of a superhighway that has grown to become the Mon/Fayette Expressway.
That story was published in 1955.
Forty-seven years and nine governors later, construction on more than half of the expressway has been completed. That includes the opening earlier this year of the 17-mile section between Interstate Route 70 in Fallowfield Township and Route 51 in Large.
The only significant movement on the expressway for about 30 years came on a cold February day in 1973.
U.S. Rep. Frank Mascara had yet to be elected to public office when he was asked to pick up then state Secretary of Transportation Jacob Kassab, a Canonsburg resident, at the Rostraver Airport. Kassab was flying it from Harrisburg to attend a groundbreaking for the expressway section from Interstate Route 70 to Route 40 in Washington County.
"I don't think we have enough money to build this highway," Kassab told Mascara.
"We're going to find the money, Jake," Mascara responded.
For more than a quarter century, Mascara - first as a Washington County commissioner for 14 years and then as a congressman since 1995 - has been among those public officials working to find the funding for the expressway.
During the Milton Shapp Administration, the emphasis was placed on maintenance and repair of the roadways that had deteriorated over the years, recalled Kassab, who served as PennDOT secretary from 1971 to 1976. There was no money for new construction. Kassab said he left the Shapp Administration in part because he was frustrated that there wasn't enough money for road projects. Kassab admits he was a big supporter of the expressway.
While the project has been a local priority for four-and one-half decades, it didn't become a state priority until the mid-1980s.
In December 1983, then-Gov. Dick Thornburgh released his Toll Roads Task Force Report, which called for construction of the Mon/Fayette Expressway as well as the Beaver Valley and Greensburg bypasses. Only the expressway lacked funding.
Irey, president of the Mon Valley Progress Council from 1981 until his death in June, was mad when he called Thornburgh in the fall of 1981. PennDOT Secretary Dr. Thomas Larson returned Irey's call with a deal. If Irey would agree, the governor would veto the pending toll roads legislation and help the legislature re-write a similar bill that would not endanger any of Pennsylvania's anticipated federal highway funding. In addition, he would establish a Toll Roads Task Force that would include State Sen. J. Barry Stout and MVPC executive director Bob Logue as members.
Mascara said the period between 1973 and 1986 was the lean years for the expressway.
"There was no funding for the expressway between 1973 and 1986." said Mascara. "That thing lay dormant."
Most proponents of the expressway point to the election of Gov. Robert P. Casey as the turning point in the construction of the expressway. Mascara said that while Casey was on the campaign trail in 1986, the gubernatorial hopeful was asked to "revive" the expressway if elected. The day after his inauguration in January 1987, Casey spent his first full day on the job in Monessen.
What was the top priority for the Mid-Mon Valley, Casey asked?
The expressway, he was resoundingly told by local leaders.
That year, Casey designated the expressway as a pilot toll road project under the federal Surface Transportation and Relocation Assistance Act. That designation made it one of only a handful of toll road highways eligible to utilize federal funds in its construction.
"The importance of that was it set the stage for a number of activities involving the expressway that followed," said Joe Kirk, who is now executive director of the MVPC.
Casey also fast tracked the project, meaning for the first time in years planning was being done in earnest to prepare the expressway for construction. PennDOT built the six-mile expressway section between I-70 and Route 40 - opening it in October 1990, 17 years after the groundbreaking Kassab attended. But, otherwise, the Turnpike Commission was in charge of the project by then.
Kirk said it was the leadership of Stout that led to the passage of important legislation for funding of the expressway.
In April 1991, the state legislature passed an oil company franchise tax that included a 14 percent allocation for construction of the Mon/Fayette Expressway. That amounts to roughly $40 million annually.
The Turnpike Commission has used that funding to leverage bond issues that raised $500 million for construction of the expressway. Those bonds will be paid through 2038 at an annual rate of $35 million.
In 1997, legislation was passed raising the vehicle registration fee from $24 to $36 for cars as an example, raising a flat amount of $28 million for the expressway.
In between, the expressway was filled with mile markers in its history - groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. The Chadville Demonstration Project was opened in Fayette County, the only significant federal funding for the project before the passage of ISTEA.
Groundbreaking for the Mason Dixon section in Fayette County was held in November 1994 with groundbreaking for the 17-mile, I-70 to Route 51 section held the following summer.
The Mason-Dixon section included the southernmost section of the highway in Pennsylvania.
In a unique dual ceremony in March 2000, then-Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and then-Gov. Cecil Underwood of West Virginia joined for groundbreaking for the Mason-Dixon section and a ribbon cutting for West Virginia's portion of the expressway.
In May 2001, the turnpike commission opened up a four-mile section of the expressway between Coyle Curtin Road and California.
On April 12, 2002, the bulk of the Mon/Fayette Expressway was opened in a pair of ceremonies. The highway's Washington County portion was named in honor of Stout.
While half of the expressway is now complete, it will take another decade to construct it through the heart of Fayette County and into Pittsburgh and Monroeville.
Still that must seem like a short period of time when measured against how far the expressway has come in the past half century.
