Experts predicted years ago that the Beaver Valley Expressway would be carrying more than 50,000 vehicles a day by now and would be a huge boon to the local economy.

Traffic not only remains relatively light for a major highway, but at 21,600 cars and trucks a day, it has yet to reach even the 28,800 level forecast for the first full year of operation, 1993.

The $228 million project also has not brought the predicted economic revival to reverse the loss of steel and other manufacturing jobs.

In short, opportunity has yet to ride the Beaver Valley Expressway, the first extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in more than 30 years when it was built.

There have been other disappointments on the 16.5-mile highway, appearing on maps as Toll 60 and designated as the James E. Ross Highway in tribute to the former state senator who steered it onto the legislative agenda.

Although the expressway filled a gap in the 55-mile Route 60 corridor between Interstate 80 and Pittsburgh International Airport, the combined population of Beaver and Lawrence counties has dropped 3 percent since the road opened.

While the number of employed people who live in the two-county area has grown by more than 7,000 over the past decade, many of them work in low-paying jobs or travel to other counties or to nearby Ohio for work, officials in both counties say.

But job growth in general has been half the national average and has not replaced a fraction of the 120,000 jobs lost in the 1980s in the two-county area. Many people quit looking for work, and many retired.

Optimism about the future was so great after the turnpike opened the highway that a local group began publishing a magazine, "Business Edge," which called itself "The voice of the Route 60 corridor." The magazine folded in the mid-1990s.

While public officials concede the impact of the Beaver Valley Expressway has been disappointing, they say the $228 million investment was nonetheless a bargain, providing a transportation link whose potential is yet to be tapped.

"The Beaver Valley Expressway filled the gap between Route 51 in Chippewa and Route 422 in New Castle," said Bob McCracken, executive director of the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce. "It put us in the crosshairs of I-80, I-79 and I-76 [Pennsylvania Turnpike]. It put us in a perfect position for development."

When is still the question.

Much talk, little action

The expressway cut a north-south path through wooded and sparsely populated rural land with virtually no infrastructure, no fuel stops and no McDonald's or any other typical interstate-related businesses at any of the four interchanges between Beaver Falls and New Castle.

Linda Nitch, executive director of the Lawrence County Development Corp., said municipalities in the New Castle area recognized several years ago that they had to take the initiative in order to benefit.

Over the past several years, they joined forces to buy 1,200 acres and begin creating Millennium Technology Park at the north end of the expressway. Water, sewer, natural gas and electric lines, an internal road system and a Route 60 interchange are being built in a "greenfield" setting, financed partly with $15 million from the state.

"It is being marketed internationally as one of the top 10 sites in the United States for large-scale, high-tech development," she said.

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A computer-chip manufacturer whose name has not been released showed interest eight months ago in becoming the park's first tenant, saying it would create up to 3,000 jobs. The firm has since put a decision about its secret Project Nemo on hold, pending the outcome of changes in the global high-tech economy.

Beaver County has embarked on the same strategy as its neighbor, hoping to tap into the state's recently enacted $1.1 billion economic-stimulus bill to finance infrastructure along Toll 60.

"People are frustrated about development being slow coming our way," said Dan Donatella, chairman of the Beaver County Board of Commissioners. "Now we have the money. We're not going to sit here and wait for things to happen."

The wait already has been longer than anyone expected.

Shortly after the Beaver Valley Expressway opened in 1992, local officials were joyous about an announcement that a $360 million "steel mill of the future" would be built in the corridor, along with other businesses requiring modern highway access rather than the rails and rivers that attracted steel mills a century before.

A medical-research complex and a hotel conference center were discussed for 100 acres next to Hopewell Business Park.

Those and other proposals turned out to be mostly talk.

The turnpike issued a six-page news release in 1994, quoting local and business officials about how the Beaver Valley Expressway was the catalyst for renewed interest in housing and prospects for regaining or replacing the thousands of lost manufacturing jobs.

"We can show folks that Route 60 is there instead of talking about what might be and what could be," James Palmer, executive director of the Beaver County Economic Development Corp. was quoted as saying.

"This gives us the opportunity to pick up our share of commercial development."

Palmer still is the executive director, but he did not return several recent phone calls to his office.

At age 77, Richard L. Shaw knows the Beaver Valley Expressway best. He has lived through the project since it was the brainstorm of Michael Baker Jr., deceased founder of Beaver-based Baker Inc., the international engineering firm where Shaw has spent 53 years and is now board chairman. He also is a member of the Allegheny County Airport Authority and board chairman of the Beaver County Economic Development Corp.

"The expressway is a great asset," Shaw said. "It has not lived up to its potential for development for reasons that nobody had the foresight or ability to control. [But] I believe 10 years is still too early to make a judgment, given what has happened to the Western Pennsylvania economy."

Despite disappointments, officials pointed out positive aspects of the Beaver Valley Expressway.

"I remember when Route 60 dead-ended into a hillside," said James Dodaro, who retired this year after 20 years as a member of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. "We knew it would be a drain on revenue for a time, but that has changed, and the Beaver Valley Expressway is having a positive impact."

The latest figures available show toll revenue approaching $8 million a year, or more than twice as much as the turnpike pays for toll collection, state police patrols and year-round maintenance.

If the expressway had not been built at all, or had not been built until now, according to Beaver County Commissioner Charles Camp: "Our region would be devastated. We may be going through a no-growth phase, but the highway stopped the bleeding."

For people and businesses near the expressway, and for savvy long-distance travelers, Toll 60 has been a time-saver. "For those with a need for it, for those who use it, it isn't a disappointment at all," Shaw said.

Drivers have reported saving 15 to 30 minutes on trips to Pittsburgh International Airport, to the turnpike's east-west mainline or to I-80 by taking the toll road, where the speed limit is 65 mph.

But saving money is more important to some local residents and businesses. They opt to drive Route 18, a two-lane, north-south road that generally parallels Toll 60, rather than pay up to $1.50 for cars or $8.15 for most 18-wheel tractor-trailers carrying full loads.

"I see more trucks on Route 18 than I do on the expressway," said state Sen. Gerald LaValle, D-Beaver, who has tried, unsuccessfully, to get the toll lowered to attract more local traffic.