Kathy Liebler

Manager, Public Affairs & Media Relations


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

July 23, 2001

 

MORE PROPERTY ENTRY NOTICES BEING MAILED 
AS STUDIES CONTINUE FOR SOUTHERN BELTWAY PROJECT 
EAST OF INTERSTATE 79

As field studies continue, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is sending notices that its envoys may be entering properties in six Washington County municipalities traversed by prospective alignments for the Southern Beltway Project between Interstate 79 and the Mon/Fayette Expressway near Finleyville.

Field work began in March 2000 and will continue through the current calendar year. It involves the identification of homes, businesses, churches, cemeteries, parks, streams, wetlands, wildlife habitat, historic structures and other features that warrant consideration in the siting of a new highway.

The vast majority of property owners who will be receiving notices in the latest mailing also received notices in Spring and Summer 2000. Approximately 10 percent of the 1,100 notices going out now are for properties that have been added to the study area because engineers want to gauge how certain adjustments in the alternatives might minimize impacts of the project.

About half of the latest entry notices are for properties in North Strabane Township, as was the case in the earlier mailings. The other municipalities where prospective alignments are under detailed study are Canonsburg Borough, Cecil Township, Peters Township, Nottingham Township and Union Township.

Receipt of a property entry letter does not mean the property will be acquired for the expressway’s right-of-way or even that entry will be necessary during the field work. Letters are mailed to owners of property within a much broader corridor than what will be required for the right-of-way so that there is room to adjust alternatives based on the findings from the field work.

Information gathered during field studies will be used in the refinement and evaluation of prospective alignments for the proposed 12-mile project.

Results of the field studies and the analysis of alternatives will be presented for public review and comment. The next round of public meetings for the Southern Beltway Project from I-79 to the Mon/Fayette Expressway likely will be held in early 2002.

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