Kathy Liebler
                        Director of Public Information

C   O   M   M   I   S   S   I   O   N                N   E   W   S             R   E   L   E   A   S   E   

  Contact: Joe Agnello, (724) 755-5262, (724) 755-5142 fax
                 e-mail: jagnello@paturnpike.com

TURNPIKE'S FIRST MON/FAYETTE EXPRESSWAY PROJECT
IN FAYETTE COUNTY TO OPEN MARCH 1, 2000

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission today announced the Fayette County leg of the Mon/Fayette Expressway's Mason Dixon Link will open to customers on March 1, 2000.

The new roadway will highlight a state-of-the-art toll collection system using unattended "dual-height" automatic multi-mode machines to accommodate both trucks and cars. The new fare collection equipment will accept coins, $1 and $5 bills and PTC commercial credit cards. It will make change and issue printed receipts.

Turnpike employees will be present to ensure that collection machines are working properly.

Motorists using the expressway will pass through a six-lane mainline toll plaza about five miles north of the West Virginia line or at ramp plazas at the Rubles Mill Road interchange approximately one mile south of the mainline barrier.

Payment at the ramp plazas will be required of motorists entering the southbound lanes or exiting the northbound lanes. Each of the two plazas on the ramps at the Rubles Mill road interchange will have two lanes.

Tolls at the mainline plaza will be 75 cents for Class I (two-axle) vehicles, $1.50 for Class 2 (three-axle) vehicles, $2.25 for Class 3 (four-axle) vehicles, $3 for Class 4 (five-axle) vehicles, and $3.75 for Class 5 (six-axle or more) vehicles.

The toll structure for the ramp plazas at Rubles Mill Road (S.R. 3007) is 50 cents for Class 1 vehicles, $1 for Class 2 vehicles, $1.50 for Class 3 vehicles, $2 for Class 4 vehicles and $2.50 for Class 5 vehicles.

The 7.8-mile, $140 million expressway in Pennsylvania generally parallels Pa. Route 857 in a north-south direction and connects to the 3.5-mile Pa. Route 43 (Chadville Demonstration Project), a non-toll expressway that ties in to US. Route 119 in the Uniontown area.

Entry and exit points are at Big Six Road near Fayette Business Park, Rubles Mill Road and Gans Road.

Approximately 1.6 miles of the new road, from Gans Road south to the state line, will not open until the West Virginia Department of Transportation's Division of Highways completes construction of its 4.2 miles of the Mason Dixon Link.

When the total project is complete, the expressway will end with an interchange at Interstate 68 just east of Morgantown.

The Mason Dixon Link is part of a proposed 65-mile system of Mon/Fayette Expressway projects that will extend north through Fayette, Washington and Allegheny counties to Interstate 376 in Pittsburgh. 

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 P.O. Box 67676, Harrisburg, PA 17106-7676         Phone: (717) 939-9551         Fax: (717) 986-9649