Since taking over the project in 1992, the Turnpike Commission has completed about half the

Since taking over the project in 1992, the Turnpike Commission has completed about half the expressway.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Federal officials have approved the last leg of a long-sought toll road from Pittsburgh to West Virginia, but now the question is: how soon it can be built as lawmakers try to shore up its financial footing?
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission needs about $1.6 billion for the 24-mile stretch of toll road through Allegheny County, as well as $165 million to finish a 15-mile section in Fayette County that will complete Pennsylvania portion of the 70-mile Mon-Fayette Expressway.
Turnpike officials say they have years to raise the money and no part of the decades-long project has been delayed for lack of money.
"How soon would you like these projects to be done? We could build it on our own without any more money, (but) we might have to wait 20 years in order to leverage the money we would need," said Joe Agnello, a spokesman for the Turnpike Commission. "It isn't like we need this by next Wednesday. Somebody could cut a check for $1 billion today for Uniontown to Pittsburgh and we couldn't build it anyway."
But proponents don't want to wait too long. Since the first dirt was pushed around and the first concrete was poured in the early 1970s, the Mon-Fayette Expressway has surged ahead and stalled, falling in and out of political favor and pulling ahead or falling behind in the line for funding.
Since the Turnpike Commission took over the project in 1992, it has completed about half the expressway, although the longest trip that can be traveled is 17 miles. It starts at the West Virginia border and goes 8 miles to state Route 43, just south of Uniontown. To get back on, drivers take a 10-mile detour to the next finished section, 17 miles between Interstate 70 and Route 51.
"I know we need additional funding. The federal government has only put a drop in the bucket. We are going to have to increase money from the state, possibly with the gas tax," said J. Barry Stout, a state senator from Washington County who has been championing the toll road for 34 years. "To build the whole entire thing we'll need $2 billion. I think we can make the case for additional federal money."
Money still needed
The Turnpike Commission cobbled together a pool of about $1.8 billion for the Mon-Fayette Expressway and the Southern Beltway, a sister toll road that would branch off to the west and eventually be part of a loop around Pittsburgh. That money includes turnpike funds, bonds, a trickle of federal money and dollars from the state's oil franchise tax and vehicle registration fees.
So far, the federal government has given and pledged $61 million in money, or about 3.4 percent of the money raised so far for the projects. Together the 70-mile Mon-Fayette Expressway and the 32-mile Southern Beltway are estimated to cost $4.3 billion, second only to the Big Dig in Boston as the nation's priciest highway project.
But Democratic U.S. Rep. John P. "Jack" Murtha, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said that turnpike officials shouldn't count on much more federal money.
"Overall the project is underfunded, and given the current economic and budget climate in Washington, it's going to be a challenge to find significant federal dollars for high-ticket projects like this anytime soon," Murtha said in a statement.
The Turnpike Commission has about $800 million remaining for both the expressway and the beltway. Excluding $224 million that will be used to build a 6-mile connector from state Route 60 to U.S. Route 22 near Pittsburgh International Airport as part of the beltway, officials say the money is enough to do everything but build the last two sections of the Mon-Fayette Expressway.