Pennsylvania Route 43

Pennsylvania Route 43
Mon/Fayette Expressway
Route information
Maintained by PennDOT
Length	65.8 mi (105.9 km)
Existed	1980s–present
Major junctions
Major intersections	US 40 in Uniontown US 40/PA 88 near West Brownsville I-70 in Fallowfield Township
Location
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
Counties	Fayette, Washington, Allegheny
Highway system
Pennsylvania State Route System Interstate US State Scenic Legislative
← PA 42 → PA 44

Pennsylvania Route 43, commonly known as the Mon/Fayette Expressway and officially the James J. Manderino Highway, is a 61.8 mile four-lane highway of the Pennsylvania Turnpike system, with a small section in West Virginia designated West Virginia Route 43, that, when finished by 2011, will connect Interstate 68 in north-central West Virginia to Interstate 376 in Pittsburgh. The highway, completed in three sections, is signed as Turnpike 43. The short (4 mile) section in West Virginia will be signed as WV 43 and also signed as "To Pennsylvania Turnpike 43" (northbound) or "To I-68" (southbound).

The Mon/Fayette Expressway is named after the Monongahela River and Fayette County (the highway itself is named after Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives James J. Manderino, who sponsored the Turnpike western expansion bill for its construction), was originally built in the late 1980s by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and transferred over to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to be operated as a toll facility. Unlike the Pennsylvania Turnpike itself and the Northeast Extension connecting Norristown and Scranton, which use long-distance tickets, Turnpike 43, like all of the western expansions of the system, uses fixed tolls collected at regular intervals. The West Virginia section, also to be completely open in 2011, will be not be tolled.

Exit list

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
Washington	Centerville			Pennsylvania Route 88 south - Fredericktown	southbound exit and northbound entrance
			30	U.S. Route 40 - Brownsville; Centerville (Pennsylvania Route 88 north)	split into 30A and 30B
	California		32	California (Pennsylvania Route 88 Truck; State Route 2073; State Route 2083)
			34	Elco (State Route 2033)
	Fallowfield Township		36	Interstate 70 - New Stanton; Washington	split into 36A and 36B
			39	Charleroi; Donora (State Route 2025)
	Carroll Township		44	Pennsylvania Route 136 - Eighty Four; Monongahela
	Union Township		48	File:Orange Belt.gif Finleyville; West Elizabeth (State Route 1006; Orange Belt)
Allegheny	Jefferson Hills		54	Pennsylvania Route 51 - Pittsburgh; Elizabeth (State Route 2030)	northbound exit and southbound entrance

History

Since the opening of the first two sections (the other is a non-tolled section south of Uniontown, Pennsylvania), the Turnpike Commission started construction on two more sections: the southern section, which is now opened except south of the Pennsylvania/West Virginia State Line, and a 15-mile section north of the original highway at Interstate 70.

When completed, the four-lane highway will not only serve as a north-south alternative to paralleling Interstate 79, but also provide a bypass for Interstate 376 around the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, a notorious four-lane bottleneck that snarls traffic and is a major cause of fatal accidents in the Pittsburgh Area. The highway will also allow direct connections, via the planned I-576 (the Pittsburgh Southern Beltway), to the Pittsburgh International Airport on the western extreme of the Pittsburgh metro area.

The highway is built to present-day Interstate Highway standards, similar to that of Delaware Route 1, but is not planned to become part of the Interstate Highway System like the parent Turnpike. It has been proposed though that the new I-576 use the Mon/Fayette route to reconnect with I-376 in Allegheny County, so that the northern section of the route could one day be named I-576 after its junction with the interstate near Clairton, Pennsylvania.

External links

• Pennsylvania Highways - PA Turnpike 43