Archive for September, 2010

By Stacy Lee,
McKeesport Daily News

“When I see the word ‘flyover,’ I sizzle,” said Munhall Mayor Raymond Bodnar. “Whether it be Duquesne no matter where it is McKeesport. It’s not because I begrudge anybody.”

The mayor has been writing letters requesting the 26-foot-wide East flyover bridge in and out of the Waterfront be widened for the past nine years.

He said the East flyover bridge in Munhall was on the PennDOT and Southwest Pennsylvania Commission agendas, among others, to be widened in the early part of the decade and the project never materialized.

The SPC is the region’s forum that plans and prioritizes the use of state and federal transportation funds designated to a 10-county region around Pittsburgh.

“This has been nine years for me for crying out loud,” Bodnar said. “There is no money for it. It gets put off every year because other projects have a higher priority. The Rankin Bridge took priority along with the Homestead Grays Bridge.”

Bodnar, who also serves as Steel Valley Council of Governments president, said there are only two ways into the Waterfront from Route 837.

“If something happens to the Amity Street entrance in Homestead, you have real problems down there,” he said. “For instance, when one of the cars with hazardous materials derailed down there last year.”

Bodnar said the Route 837 area, including the Rankin Bridge, the East flyover bridge and Ravine Street, is the site of much congestion.

[ Full story available at: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailynewsmckeesport/s_701620.html ]