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2002 is a key year for deciding the direction that major regional transportation projects will be headed, says Jim Hassinger, the new executive director of Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

Proposed transportation projects of all sorts - a regional Maglev system, an Airport Corridor link, the Mon Valley Expressway, and a downtown Pittsburgh to Oakland transit system extension - are the subject of studies and discussions that are under way or planned for this year.

"I think this is going to be an interesting year because of all the alternatives we are looking at, the investments, and the potential they have for improving how we get around in the region," Hassinger said during a meeting with Tribune-Review editors.

In his role as the leading staff executive with the SPC, Hassinger plans to do what he can to help commission officials and other regional leaders work toward a consensus on major projects that promise to shape the region's future for many years.

The SPC is the federally designated Metropolitan Transportation Agency for the region, so it has a lot to do with determining how billions of dollars in federal funds will be spent on highway and other transportation projects in eight area counties (Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Indiana, Washington and Westmoreland) and the city of Pittsburgh.

In addition, the commission also has an economic development role in those counties, along with Fayette County, which is an associate member.

Hassinger has spent much of his time since November, when he assumed his new duties with the SPC, attending meetings with key regional stakeholders.

He plans to continue to exchange ideas and learn more about the region in those discussions. Those talks include officials of SPC-member counties and leaders of regional economic development organizations such as the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.

"My approach is to build relationships," said Hassinger, who was chosen for the SPC post after a nationwide search. He replaced the late Robert Kochanowski, a highly respected official, who died in August 2000 after being hit by a car near his home.

A graduate of Penn State University with 17 years of experience in regional planning and management, the 51-year-old Hassinger came to the region from North Carolina, where he had served 10 months as executive director of the Centralina Council of Governments based in Charlotte. Before that, he served for seven years with a regional planning organization in Richmond, Va.

In his position here, Hassinger is being paid $155,000 annually, leading an organization with a staff of 47 and a budget of about $11.8 million.

By this summer, Hassinger and other leaders looking for regional consensus on transportation planning should have the results of one highly anticipated study to help them.

That is when the Strategic Transit Visioning Study, dubbed "2020 Vision," a $1.75 million, 18-month look at transit needs throughout the eight-county region, should be completed. It is being conducted by two consulting firms hired by the SPC and the Port Authority of Allegheny County, and includes participation from all the transit agencies in the region.

Separately, the SPC, Port Authority and several other public entities also are sharing the cost of a $1.5-million Airport Multimodal Corridor Major Investment Study. This study, expected by October, is developing recommendations on highway and mass transit links along the Parkway West Corridor from downtown Pittsburgh to the Pittsburgh International Airport. Its goal is to reduce travel times and spur development and employment opportunities within the corridor.

Still another study due to be completed by the end of the year is a planned Eastern Corridor Transit Study. A consultant is to be hired to view a variety of transit options proposed or considered in an area, including Pittsburgh and encompassing areas of both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

That study is expected to cost in the range of $1 million, according to Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove. It will consider the feasibility of the proposed high-speed magnetic levitation transit system long-sought by supporters of the so-called "maglev" technology in this region.

The region's maglev plan, which would use the technology to link Pittsburgh and the airport to Monroeville and Greensburg, is competing with a regional project in the Baltimore, Md.-Washington, D.C. area for selection as a federal demonstration project.

The Eastern Corridor study also is to re-examine the long-proposed extension of the city's subway system between the city's downtown and its Oakland neighborhood, as well as expanding the existing busway system to outlying communities, including those in the Mon Valley.

Hassinger said the SPC and its partners also will continue to discuss the future of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, which has become the subject of increasing debate as decisions near on how the massive highway project will proceed toward and through the city of Pittsburgh.

As with most major projects, Hassinger said it will be up to the various parties involved to reach a consensus about the highway so it can be continued as part of the region's overall transportation planning process.

"Fundamentally, what we do is convene those folks to resolve those issues in a forum that is designed for that purpose," he said, noting that public hearings continue to be held to gather opinions on the project.

"We are going to take that all into consideration, provide summaries of what people are saying, and give it to our Policy Committee," Hassinger said.

Hassinger said he expects the committee will be ready to make recommendations as to whether the project should be included as part of SPC's Long-Range Plan within the next several months.

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