Turnpike contract awarded

HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania Turnpike commissioners awarded a Columbus, Ohio, company a $45.9 million contract to build the southern end of the Findlay Connector, a nearly 6-mile toll road that will extend from Pittsburgh International Airport.
The connector is the third and final road construction project to be awarded for the total $224 million project, which is scheduled for completion in summer 2006. It will extend south from the Pa. Route 60 Expressway at the airport to U.S. Route 22 in northwestern Washington County.
The Smith & amp; Johnson Construction Co. of Columbus was the lowest of eight bidders for the project.
The Findlay Connector will serve as part of the proposed Southern Beltway, a 30- to 35-mile network of independent but interconnected, highway projects that would swing south and east from the airport to link Route 22 and Interstate 79 with the new north-south Mon/Fayette Expressway near Finleyville.
Alignments for the two other beltway projects have not been finalized, says a turnpike commission press release.