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Kathy Liebler |
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Kathy Liebler |
C O M M I S S I O N N E W S R E L E A S E
CONTACT: Kathy Liebler or
Lowman Henry
June 4, 1997
CONTACT: (717)
939-9551 Ext. # 2850
CONTRACT AWARDED FOR MON/FAYETTE
EXPRESSWAY CONSTRUCTION IN WASHINGTON COUNTY
Harrisburg, PA -- Turnpike
Commissioners today awarded a $20.8 million contract to Mashuda
Corporation for Mon/Fayette construction in Washington County.
The contract, valued at
$20,859,663, involves the construction of dual bridges, each
about 1,000 feet long and 200 feet high, to carry the highway
over Maple Creek, the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad, and
State Route 2016 in Fallowfield Township. Work also includes
grading and drainage necessary to construct approximately 1.3
miles of the expressway.
Mashuda Corporation, based in
Cranberry Township, Butler County, was the lowest responsible
bidder and will finish the construction no later than November
10, 1999. Turnpike Commission Chairman James F. Malone III,
noting that Mashuda's $20.8 million bid was 13 percent under the
Turnpike's $24 million estimate, said "We are very pleased
with the price and we are very pleased we'll be working with a
familiar general contractor from right here in western
Pennsylvania. This contract award represents significant progress
toward the construction of the Mon/Fayette Expressway."
Construction Section 52B2 is
part of the 17-mile Mon/Fayette Expressway Project from
Interstate 70 in Fallowfield Township to PA Route 51 in Jefferson
Borough, Allegheny County. Final environmental clearance for the
project was received in May 1994 from the U.S. Department of
Transportation's Federal Highway Administration. That allowed the
Turnpike Commission to proceed with final design of the alignment
identified in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the
acquisition of required rights-of-way.
The I-70 to Route 51 Project,
which will link the existing six-mile Turnpike 43 toll road
between I-70 and U.S. Route 40 in the California area to create
some 23 miles of expressway travel convenience, is scheduled to
open in 2001. It is one of four prospective components of the
proposed 65-mile Mon/Fayette Expressway that would stretch south
from Pittsburgh to Interstate 68 near Morgantown, W.VA., largely
through the Monongahela River Valley.
Turnpike Commissioners
anticipate letting construction contracts before 1998 for more
than one-third of the I-70 to Route 51 Expressway and virtually
all of the Pennsylvania portion of the 12-mile Mon/Fayette
"Mason Dixon Link" between I-68 in Monongalia County,
West Virginia and PA Route 43 in Fairchance, Fayette County.
Final environmental clearance for the Mason Dixon Link was
received in September 1994. It is scheduled to open in late 1999.
The Turnpike Commission is
continuing to study alignments in the two other Mon/Fayette study
areas - from Uniontown to Brownsville and from Route 51 to
Pittsburgh. An environmental Impact Statement must be submitted
for each of those projects.
Today's action increases to five
the number of Mon/Fayette Expressway construction contracts the
Turnpike Commission has awarded since October 1994. The five
contracts represent an investment of about $35.5 million. A
Washington County firm - Alex E. Paris Contracting of Atlasburg -
is constructing 4.5 acres of wetlands near Peters Creek in South
Park Township, Allegheny County, to replace wetlands being lost
elsewhere as a result of the I-70 to Route 51 Project.
Through November 1996, the
Turnpike Commission had expended $ 116.4 million on the four
Mon/Fayette projects, including environmental impact studies,
preliminary engineering and right-of-way acquisitions.
The Pennsylvania General
Assembly authorized the Turnpike Commission to plan, construct
and operate the Mon/Fayette Expressway in Act 61 of 1985.
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P.O. Box
67676, Harrisburg, PA 17106-7676
Phone: (717) 939-9551 Fax: (717)
986-9649