Southern Beltway will officially connect I-79 to Parkway West starting Friday

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — It’s miles of open roadway and the last piece to the project.

“This has been a longtime happening assets for Washington County,” said Nick Sherman.

Sherman, who’s a Washington County commissioner, is talking about the Southern Beltway. It’s a toll road that will officially connect Interstate 79 at Southpointe to the Parkway West at the airport starting on Friday.

“This is the final part of the expansion. You’ll be able to access the highway coming from north to south,” Sherman said.

The project took about $800 million to complete and some residents aren’t on board with the fees to drive it.

“Taxes, gases are so hard and they want to charge a toll. I’m against it that’s my opinion,” said Edward Sartori, who lives in South Fayette.

Three toll points will sit on the 19-mile stretch of road. Customers with E-ZPass will be charged by their account and people without one will have an invoice sent to their house after a camera takes a photo of the passing vehicle’s license plate. A newer payment option will be available to drivers who would prefer to pay with cash.

“We now have a new payment method in place that allows customers receiving a Toll By Plate invoice the option to pay with cash instead of mailing in the payment,” said PA Turnpike CEO, Mark Compton. “When they receive the invoice in the mail, there are instructions included as to how to pay with cash by creating a pay slip to take to participating retailers that accept these cash payments.”

But Sherman hopes the residents look at the big picture. He believes this connection will help bring new business and infrastructure to Washington County.

“Southpointe where we are right now was always the biggest boom in Washington County and now we are starting to that western part of our county develop quickly in Fort Cherry and lands where this road is. It’s been a blessing for economic development,” Sherman said.

Now that the beltway will be fully open coming from both directions on the interstate, Sherman believes we will see more traffic and more plans are coming to connect it to other communities.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission said that they expect to see 10,000 vehicles use the Southern Beltway on average per day.

“We are looking at the area that will be connected to Finleyville, South Hills, West Mifflin, the Kennywood region so when we are looking it has been a long time coming but we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Sherman said.

It’s not clear when the signs will come down and the road will open to traffic, but officials said at some point on Friday.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

More E-ZPass customers getting $10 penalty charges

©2022 Cox Media Group