Industrial Highway
| Industrial Highway | |
|---|---|
| Neighborhood | Fairywood |
| Chartiers Valley Expressway (1962 – late 1970s) | |
Industrial Highway is a "highway to nowhere": a stretch of four-lane highway, seven-tenths of a mile long, that terminates abruptly at both ends. It is the only piece that was ever built of the Chartiers Valley Expressway, proposed in 1962 to connect Steubenville Pike (Route 60) to Carson Street (Route 51) in Esplen.[1][2] Bids were taken in 1969 and construction was underway by 1970.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
The name Industrial Highway was used as early as 1965 in a notice of redevelopment for the Chartiers Valley Industrial Park. The legal description of the boundary of the redevelopment area twice mentioned "the proposed Industrial Highway."[9] The section of highway that was built was constructed first in order to provide access to a food distribution center in this industrial park.[3][5][6][7] Woodmere Drive and Roswell Drive had been built earlier, in 1966, as the first streets in the industrial park.[10]
City planners were initially optimistic about the future of the highway. In 1970 the city printed its first new official map in ten years; one of its advertised features was that "paper streets"—streets shown only on maps that do not really exist—were shown as broken lines. But in an ironic case of overconfidence, this map showed the whole Chartiers Valley Expressway, which had just begun construction, as a completed thoroughfare.[11]
In 1971 plans were drawn up for an additional 2.4-mile section of the expressway, running from the part then under construction (today's Industrial Highway), along Chartiers Creek, and under the Windgap Bridge to join Route 51 at the intersection of Stanhope Street and Stafford Street.[12] However, in 1974 Governor Milton Shapp, while approving several projects, vetoed many others, including an authorization to issue bonds for the expressway.[13] And the next year the City Planning Director, Robert Paternoster, predicted that the project's $15 million price tag, to carry only an estimated 7200 vehicles per day, would yield too low a benefit–cost ratio to ever get federal money.[14] By the late 1970s, the expressway project had been scrapped, along with state funding; this led to a dispute over who should pay for the replacement of the deteriorating Windgap Bridge, which had been part of the expressway plans.[15][16][17][18][19][20]
The wide, vacant Industrial Highway has attracted drag racers, sometimes as many as 600, to the irritation of nearby residents, local business owners, and police.[21]
References
- ↑ William Lawson. "Industrial Highway: 'The Highway to Nowhere.'" The SWPA Roads Project, Aug. 10, 2002. http://www.gribblenation.com/swparoads/coulda/industrial.html. [view source] lawson
- ↑ "City's street program will cost $13 million: For smoother riding." Pittsburgh Press, Apr. 19, 1962, p. 9. Newspapers.com 149003759. [view source] smoother
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "State sets bid date for Chartiers road." Pittsburgh Press, Aug. 3, 1969, sec. 1, p. 7. Newspapers.com 148201120. [view source] bid-date
- ↑ "Chartiers road bids due Friday." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 25, 1969, p. 10. Newspapers.com 88532849. [view source] bids-due-friday
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "State to open Chartiers bids." Pittsburgh Press, Aug. 25, 1969, p. 3. Newspapers.com 148207524. [view source] chartiers-bids
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Chartiers Expressway bids opened: Pittsburgh firm low bidder on part of project." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 7, 1969, p. 6. Newspapers.com 88517055. [view source] chartiers-expressway
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Expressway bids to be opened: To link Carson St., Thornburg Bridge." Pittsburgh Press, May 25, 1969, sec. 1, p. 17. Newspapers.com 148012878. [view source] expressway-bids
- ↑ "Highway bids opened." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 1, 1969, p. 21. Newspapers.com 88922658. [view source] highway-bids
- ↑ "Notice of redevelopment, Twenty-Eighth Ward, City of Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 4, 1965, p. 41. Newspapers.com 149524772. [view source] redevelopment
- ↑ "Industrial park to get streets: Chartiers project to cost $436,602." Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 8, 1966, p. 3. Newspapers.com 149358335. [view source] windmere-roswell
- ↑ Jerry Sharpe. "Oh, it's only a paper street, say new city map dotted lines." Pittsburgh Press, Jan. 21, 1970, p. 17. Newspapers.com 141389963. [view source] new-map
- ↑ "Chartiers Valley road job OKd." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Feb. 26, 1971, p. 17. Newspapers.com 90046766. [view source] road-job-okd
- ↑ "$24 million area projects OKd by Shapp." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 31, 1974, p. 1. Newspapers.com 88683664. [view source] bond-veto
- ↑ "Expressway extension in West End doubted: Priority low—Paternoster." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mar. 13, 1975, p. 3. Newspapers.com 89542137. [view source] paternoster
- ↑ "PUC tells county: begin building Windgap Bridge." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Apr. 14, 1978, p. 8. Newspapers.com 88962985. [view source] begin-building-windgap-bridge
- ↑ "Bridge change turned down." Pittsburgh Press, July 2, 1978, p. A-5. Newspapers.com 146928087. [view source] bridge-change
- ↑ Steven A. Marquez. "City wants Rocks, county to share span repair cost." Pittsburgh Press, July 26, 1978, p. A-3. Newspapers.com 146982251. [view source] marquez
- ↑ Connie Giel. "New Windgap Bridge tagged at $3.1 million." Pittsburgh Press, June 8, 1977, p. B-4. Newspapers.com 142725873. [view source] new-windgap-bridge
- ↑ "Windgap Ave. span replacement OK'd." Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 19, 1979, p. A-5. Newspapers.com 147146099. [view source] windgap-ave-span
- ↑ Edwina Rankin. "Windgap Bridge future still hanging up in the air: Two-lane, four-lane controversy." Pittsburgh Press, Sept. 27, 1978, p. A-29. Newspapers.com 146979819. [view source] windgap-bridge-hanging
- ↑ Johnna A. Pro. "A night at the races: Vacant highway, kids in cars mean police are on the way." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 2, 2000, pp. B-1, B-6. Newspapers.com 89870375, 89870389. [view source] drag-racing
