Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Chief Executive Officer Joe Brimmeier said it's up to the state Legislature to decide whether to finish what it started in 1985: the Mon-Fayette Expressway and other toll-road projects.

"The turnpike commission is nothing more than a contractor for the legislative mandate we received to build these roads," he told a meeting of the Urban Land Institute's Pittsburgh chapter yesterday at the Rivers Club, Downtown.

"If people believe the [expressway] should be finished, political leaders have to have the courage to make it happen. Do we sacrifice and move forward or do we fix up what we have and hope for the best?"

The institute, an organization of about 200 architects, developers and real estate professionals, issued a report yesterday that says the estimated cost of the Mon-Fayette Expressway and Southern Beltway has jumped by $1.4 billion in five years -- to $5.4 billion altogether -- and completion of the projects may be unaffordable. In jeopardy is the 24-mile, $2.7 billion main link of the expressway from Route 51 in Jefferson Hills, north to Monroeville and Pittsburgh.

Mr. Brimmeier said he agreed with "99.9 percent of the report," adding: "We have a problem and it's one we've been talking about for more than a year."

In 1985, the Legislature transferred development of the Mon-Fayette Expressway from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to the turnpike commission as part of a toll-road-expansion bill that, at the time, was estimated to cost $4 billion.

The bill included construction of Toll 60 (Beaver Valley Expressway), Toll 66 (Greensburg Bypass) and two projects in the Philadelphia area. All of them have been completed.

Projects for extending the Mon-Fayette Expressway south to Interstate 68 in West Virginia and adding a Southern Beltway along the Allegheny-Washington County line to Pittsburgh International Airport were covered in subsequent legislation. About half of the approximately 100 miles of the final two toll roads are open or under construction.

Alex Botkin, a research director for East Liberty-based CONSAD Research Corp., which compiled Urban Land Institute's report, said the turnpike commission was flush with cash when state lawmakers transferred responsibility for major highway projects.

"There were lots of hopes for economic development using Pennsylvania Turnpike money," he said. "It was quickly shown that was not a very good idea."

Although the Legislature has given a share of state gasoline taxes and a $28 million annual payment from motor vehicle fees to the turnpike commission to support bonds that have generated almost $1.9 billion, the agency can no longer rely on those sources to provide the extra $3.5 billion needed to finish the last 50 miles.

In the aftermath of yesterday's meeting, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has learned:

While the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission still has $748 million to spend on the projects and the report says it will last through mid-2012, the 10-year capital planning program shows all but $18.2 million will be gone about three years from now.

The commission has delayed hiring consultants to start preparing a right-of-way plan to acquire property for the northern section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway in Allegheny County. "We've slowed the process down," Mr. Brimmeier conceded.

Turnpike commission officials have met twice with the Macquarie Group, an Australian investment firm that has bought into toll roads in other states. Macquarie is spending about $500,000 to study potential private-public investment in the expressway and beltway.

Automatic increases in the state's oil franchise tax, which is pegged to the wholesale price of gas, are providing about $18 million in unanticipated, extra revenue for toll-road expansion.

State Rep. Rick Geist, R-Altoona, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, was to have been a panelist at the institute's meeting yesterday but had a prior commitment and didn't participate.

Braddock Mayor John Fetterman said officials of towns in the path of the Mon-Fayette Expressway need to know whether the project will be built.

"You've created a ribbon that's a dead zone through the middle of Braddock," Mr. Fetterman said. "Otherwise, you're causing more hardship than we already have [and] we have to develop alternate plans. You need to establish a jumping-off point."

Mr. Brimmeier said the ultimate responsibility rests with the Legislature and its ability to raise revenue.

"I understand and appreciate your concern. That's why a decision has to be made soon," he said, recalling an experience from his childhood on the North Side, when PennDOT acquired his family's home for the future East Street Valley Expressway (I-279).

"Thirty-two years later, I finally drove on it," Mr. Brimmeier said.