North Shore Connector
Encyclopedia
The North Shore Connector project is a 1.2 mile (1.9 km) tunnel under construction in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
. It is an extension of Pittsburgh's 25-mile subway/light rail system
from its current terminus at Gateway Center Station
in Downtown to the new North Side Station and Allegheny Station on the North Shore
by way of a tunnel under the Allegheny River
. Planned since the late 1990's, it received federal funding on February 6, 2004 and had crews complete the initial bore under the river on July 10, 2008. The new Allegheny Station will be on the site of the Carnegie Science Center's former UPMC SportsWorks
building. The site will also contain the turnaround point and trolley car depot.
The project is scheduled to be opened on March 25, 2012.http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_762675.html
The North Side Station will serve PNC Park
(1.75 million annual fans) and the Community College of Allegheny County
(7,200 students). The Allegheny Station will serve Heinz Field
(500,000 annual fans, excluding concerts), the Carnegie Science Center
(700,000 annual visitors), and the Rivers Casino
.
Other businesses and attractions served include the Del Monte corporate headquarters (600 employees), Equitable Resources
(450 employees), the SpringHill Suites
Marriott
Hotel and other nearby hotels, Stage AE
North Shore Amphitheater (Indoor rock club plus outdoor amphitheater with lawn for 5,500 visitors opening December 2010), the Andy Warhol Museum (90,000 visitors), and many other night spots and restaurants.
Locally, it has been argued that the Pittsburgh Light Rail
network probably deserves to be expanded, but that the most logical extension would be an eastward one, not a northward one. The "Spine Line", a proposed eastward extension reaching from the Central Business District to Oakland
, was abandoned in part due to its prohibitive projected cost of over $1 billion and its estimated 15-year planning and construction schedule. The North Shore Connector, by comparison, could be built quickly and with a substantially smaller budget. As one local columnist wrote, "People argue the T line should have gone to Oakland first, and they're right…The North Shore Connector is our consolation prize."
On the national level, the project has attracted controversy due to its cost and its use of federal funding. The project's original budget was estimated at $350 million, but it increased to $435 million by 2006, and to more than $550 million by 2009, later revised down to $528.8 million in 2010. Eighty percent of the funding was provided by the U.S. federal government. The North Shore Connector was ranked #3 in the nation among stimulus-funded projects purported to waste taxpayer money in a report by Senators
John McCain
and Tom Coburn
. The "Summertime Blues" report, their third in a series, identified 100 projects throughout the country that received money from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law in 2009 by President Barack Obama
, which the senators classified as wasteful government spending. According to McCain, the Connector is an example of stimulus dollars spent to fund projects with "questionable goals," or those that "are being mismanaged or were poorly planned." Meanwhile Coburn reminded the media that the initial budget was approximately $390 million, but "quickly ballooned" to a cost of $553 million. In 2009 then-Governor Ed Rendell
, a Democrat, called the tunnel "a tragic mistake" and expressed his wish that the project had never been started. He further stated his belief that the money given to the state from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act should have been applied to the transportation needs of the state "in a more beneficial fashion". Supporters of the North Shore Connector have argued that the stimulus funds have provided stability to the local construction industry while enhancing the public transportation infrastructure of the city, and one columnist noted that "[i]f the federal government didn't build [the North Shore Connector] here, it would have built something equally expensive somewhere else."
In 2010, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
expressed its opposition to the project, noting that there were already four bridges capable of transporting people from the Downtown area to the city's North Shore and North Side. The Tribune-Review further stated that PNC Park is already accessible to Pittsburgh Pirates
fans via the Roberto Clemente Bridge
, while the Pittsburgh Steelers
have sold out Heinz Field for years without the project's help. These critiques do not take into account the fact that any northward expansion of Pittsburgh's light rail network would require that the Allegheny river be crossed in some fashion, and the light rail cars could not utilize existing bridges. The engineers who planned the project concluded that a tunnel, rather than a new or retrofitted bridge, would be the most cost-effective solution to this issue. In addition, in December 2010, the Steelers began examining the possibility of increasing the capacity of Heinz Field
by "several thousand" seats. The president of Alco Parking, Merrill Stabile, noted that the North Shore
lacks the parking capacity to serve additional fans, and that the North Shore Connector could help alleviate the congestion by "making it easier for fans to park Downtown". Supporters have argued that the North Shore Connector will not only ease weekend congestion on the North Shore, but will also ease weekday congestion in the Central Business district. On weekdays, commuters will be able to ride the light rail from the North Shore to the central business district by parking in one of the underutilized parking lots or garages of the North Shore. Buses serving the region north of Pittsburgh could make terminal stops at the North Shore light rail stations rather than driving into the central business district, further decreasing congestion on the city streets—"a gift to all rush-hour commuters".
One positive aspect of the project highlighted by its supporters is that it makes any future northward expansions of the light rail network significantly easier because the problem of crossing the Allegheny River has already been solved. More generally, the project reflects a regional commitment not to neglect public transportation infrastructure in favor of a purely automobile-based transportation system, with one columnist noting that "[a] light-rail line that stretches from the South Hills to the North Side is going to look much better when gas shoots back over $4 a gallon…Regions that offer residents varied transportation options will be the ones that succeed in this century."
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. It is an extension of Pittsburgh's 25-mile subway/light rail system
Pittsburgh Light Rail
The Pittsburgh Light Rail is a light rail system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it functions as a subway in Downtown Pittsburgh and largely as an at-grade light rail service in the suburbs. The system is owned and operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County...
from its current terminus at Gateway Center Station
Gateway Center (PAT station)
Gateway Center was a station on the Port Authority of Allegheny County's Pittsburgh Light Rail network, and until October 30, 2009 it was the "T" system's westernmost extent within downtown Pittsburgh. The Port Authority closed Gateway Center as part of construction work on the North Shore...
in Downtown to the new North Side Station and Allegheny Station on the North Shore
North Shore (Pittsburgh)
The North Shore is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's North Side. It has a zip code of 15212, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by both the council members for District 1 and 6...
by way of a tunnel under the Allegheny River
Allegheny River
The Allegheny River is a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
. Planned since the late 1990's, it received federal funding on February 6, 2004 and had crews complete the initial bore under the river on July 10, 2008. The new Allegheny Station will be on the site of the Carnegie Science Center's former UPMC SportsWorks
UPMC SportsWorks
Highmark SportsWorks is one of the major, consistent exhibits of the Carnegie Science Center located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is one of largest science and sports exhibition in the world, with over 30 interactive experiences in which visitors can participate...
building. The site will also contain the turnaround point and trolley car depot.
The project is scheduled to be opened on March 25, 2012.http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_762675.html
Areas and attractions served
The North Shore neighborhood of Pittsburgh evolved from a "sea of asphalt" in the 1990s to a bustling extension of the central business district reflecting approximately $1 billion in investment and construction in the first decade of the 2000s. The North Shore Connector links Pittsburgh's existing 25-mile light rail network to the new businesses and attractions of the North Shore.The North Side Station will serve PNC Park
PNC Park
PNC Park is a baseball park located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the city's Major League Baseball franchise. It opened during the 2001 Major League Baseball season, after the controlled implosion of the Pirates' previous home, Three Rivers Stadium...
(1.75 million annual fans) and the Community College of Allegheny County
Community College of Allegheny County
Community College of Allegheny County, or CCAC as it is officially abbreviated, is a community college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With four campuses and six centers, the college offers associate's degrees, certificate and diploma programs....
(7,200 students). The Allegheny Station will serve Heinz Field
Heinz Field
Heinz Field is a stadium located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It primarily serves as the home to the Pittsburgh Steelers and University of Pittsburgh Panthers American football teams, members of the National Football League and National Collegiate Athletic Association respectively...
(500,000 annual fans, excluding concerts), the Carnegie Science Center
Carnegie Science Center
The Carnegie Science Center, located in the Chateau neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opened in 1991.With a history that dates to October 24, 1939, the Carnegie Science Center is the most visited museum in Pittsburgh...
(700,000 annual visitors), and the Rivers Casino
Rivers Casino
The Rivers Casino is a casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. It is owned by Holdings Acquisition Co. L.P., a joint venture of Walton Street Capital LLC and High Pitt Gaming LP...
.
Other businesses and attractions served include the Del Monte corporate headquarters (600 employees), Equitable Resources
Equitable Resources
EQT Corporation is a Pittsburgh, United States-based, integrated energy company, supplying natural gas, crude oil, and gas-related services to wholesale and retail customers...
(450 employees), the SpringHill Suites
SpringHill Suites
SpringHill Suites is part of the Marriott International family of hotels.In 1998, Marriott International announced plans to convert Fairfield Suites to SpringHill Suites by Marriott. By doing so, Marriott hoped to capture a share in the upper moderate-priced all-suite lodging segment of the hotel...
Marriott
Marriott International
Marriott International, Inc. is a worldwide operator and franchisor of a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Founded by J. Willard Marriott, the company is now led by son J.W. Marriott, Jr...
Hotel and other nearby hotels, Stage AE
Stage AE
Stage AE is a multi-purpose entertainment complex located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It contains an indoor concert hall with room for 2,400 spectators and an outdoor amphitheatre that can accommodate 5,550. Additionally, the complex contains a nightclub that can hold 350 to 400...
North Shore Amphitheater (Indoor rock club plus outdoor amphitheater with lawn for 5,500 visitors opening December 2010), the Andy Warhol Museum (90,000 visitors), and many other night spots and restaurants.
Reception
The North Shore Connector project has attracted considerable controversy on both the local and national level. The points of contention include whether the North Shore Connector is the best way to extend Pittsburgh's light rail network; whether the North Shore Connector will prove to be competitive with existing roads, bridges, and trails in attracting commuters; and whether the project's long-term benefits to the region will justify its cost. Its supporters have argued that any enhancement of public transportation infrastructure in the region should be welcome if it decreases regional reliance on automobiles, especially given the uncertainty of future fuel prices and the paucity of parking in the central business district, while opponents have argued that the project's small scope and large budget constitute a waste of government spending.Locally, it has been argued that the Pittsburgh Light Rail
Pittsburgh Light Rail
The Pittsburgh Light Rail is a light rail system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it functions as a subway in Downtown Pittsburgh and largely as an at-grade light rail service in the suburbs. The system is owned and operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County...
network probably deserves to be expanded, but that the most logical extension would be an eastward one, not a northward one. The "Spine Line", a proposed eastward extension reaching from the Central Business District to Oakland
Oakland (Pittsburgh)
Oakland is the academic, cultural, and healthcare center of Pittsburgh and is Pennsylvania's third largest "Downtown". Only Center City Philadelphia and Downtown Pittsburgh can claim more economic and social activity than Oakland...
, was abandoned in part due to its prohibitive projected cost of over $1 billion and its estimated 15-year planning and construction schedule. The North Shore Connector, by comparison, could be built quickly and with a substantially smaller budget. As one local columnist wrote, "People argue the T line should have gone to Oakland first, and they're right…The North Shore Connector is our consolation prize."
On the national level, the project has attracted controversy due to its cost and its use of federal funding. The project's original budget was estimated at $350 million, but it increased to $435 million by 2006, and to more than $550 million by 2009, later revised down to $528.8 million in 2010. Eighty percent of the funding was provided by the U.S. federal government. The North Shore Connector was ranked #3 in the nation among stimulus-funded projects purported to waste taxpayer money in a report by Senators
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and Tom Coburn
Tom Coburn
Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn, M.D. , is an American politician, medical doctor, and Southern Baptist deacon. A member of the Republican Party, he currently serves as the junior U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. In the Senate, he is known as "Dr. No" for his tendency to place holds on and vote against bills...
. The "Summertime Blues" report, their third in a series, identified 100 projects throughout the country that received money from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law in 2009 by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, which the senators classified as wasteful government spending. According to McCain, the Connector is an example of stimulus dollars spent to fund projects with "questionable goals," or those that "are being mismanaged or were poorly planned." Meanwhile Coburn reminded the media that the initial budget was approximately $390 million, but "quickly ballooned" to a cost of $553 million. In 2009 then-Governor Ed Rendell
Ed Rendell
Edward Gene "Ed" Rendell is an American politician who served as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania. Rendell, a member of the Democratic Party, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 2002, and his term of office began January 21, 2003...
, a Democrat, called the tunnel "a tragic mistake" and expressed his wish that the project had never been started. He further stated his belief that the money given to the state from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act should have been applied to the transportation needs of the state "in a more beneficial fashion". Supporters of the North Shore Connector have argued that the stimulus funds have provided stability to the local construction industry while enhancing the public transportation infrastructure of the city, and one columnist noted that "[i]f the federal government didn't build [the North Shore Connector] here, it would have built something equally expensive somewhere else."
In 2010, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States...
expressed its opposition to the project, noting that there were already four bridges capable of transporting people from the Downtown area to the city's North Shore and North Side. The Tribune-Review further stated that PNC Park is already accessible to Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
fans via the Roberto Clemente Bridge
Roberto Clemente Bridge
The Roberto Clemente Bridge, also known as the Sixth Street Bridge, spans the Allegheny River in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
, while the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
have sold out Heinz Field for years without the project's help. These critiques do not take into account the fact that any northward expansion of Pittsburgh's light rail network would require that the Allegheny river be crossed in some fashion, and the light rail cars could not utilize existing bridges. The engineers who planned the project concluded that a tunnel, rather than a new or retrofitted bridge, would be the most cost-effective solution to this issue. In addition, in December 2010, the Steelers began examining the possibility of increasing the capacity of Heinz Field
Heinz Field
Heinz Field is a stadium located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It primarily serves as the home to the Pittsburgh Steelers and University of Pittsburgh Panthers American football teams, members of the National Football League and National Collegiate Athletic Association respectively...
by "several thousand" seats. The president of Alco Parking, Merrill Stabile, noted that the North Shore
North Shore (Pittsburgh)
The North Shore is a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's North Side. It has a zip code of 15212, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by both the council members for District 1 and 6...
lacks the parking capacity to serve additional fans, and that the North Shore Connector could help alleviate the congestion by "making it easier for fans to park Downtown". Supporters have argued that the North Shore Connector will not only ease weekend congestion on the North Shore, but will also ease weekday congestion in the Central Business district. On weekdays, commuters will be able to ride the light rail from the North Shore to the central business district by parking in one of the underutilized parking lots or garages of the North Shore. Buses serving the region north of Pittsburgh could make terminal stops at the North Shore light rail stations rather than driving into the central business district, further decreasing congestion on the city streets—"a gift to all rush-hour commuters".
One positive aspect of the project highlighted by its supporters is that it makes any future northward expansions of the light rail network significantly easier because the problem of crossing the Allegheny River has already been solved. More generally, the project reflects a regional commitment not to neglect public transportation infrastructure in favor of a purely automobile-based transportation system, with one columnist noting that "[a] light-rail line that stretches from the South Hills to the North Side is going to look much better when gas shoots back over $4 a gallon…Regions that offer residents varied transportation options will be the ones that succeed in this century."
