HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell is coming to Pittsburgh and Duquesne today with millions of dollars for job creation projects, which should put smiles on the faces of Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Mayor Tom Murphy.

Rendell's office said yesterday that he will make eight "significant" announcements about economic development projects in Pittsburgh during a 10 a.m. news conference at Summerset at Frick Park.

It's a development of expensive new single-family houses being built on an old slag heap between Squirrel Hill and Swisshelm Park, a hilly site overlooking the Monongahela River.

According to officials both here and in Pittsburgh, Rendell is expected to release up to $5 million in state capital funds for the second phase of the housing development, which is creating a new neighborhood along Nine Mile Run, which empties into the river.

The money will be used for grading parts of the hilly site so housing can be built, and for installing roads and water and sewer lines.

There are now several dozen families living on the site, which for decades looked like a barren wasteland. The site eventually is to contain more than 700 new housing units. Some of the Summerset residents have moved into the city from nearby suburbs.

The $5 million in state capital assistance for Summerset will be matched by $5 million in other public funds, and those together are expected to produce $210 million in private investment.

Also today, Rendell is expected to release up to $3 million in state funds to help finance two new parking garages at the South Side Works, the new residential, commercial and office development on the site of an old steel mill between East Carson Street and the Mon River.

A third city project expected to receive state funding is conversion of the former LTV coke works in Hazelwood into office and research and development space, along with some new housing units.

Last year, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Growth Alliance, a 10-county, public-private coalition, requested $25 million in state capital assistance for converting the old industrial site into a "campus-style setting" for new office and R&D uses. It isn't known if that full amount will be released today.

The Growth Alliance last year also asked for funds for other city development projects, including a new hotel at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center; an African-American Cultural Center, Downtown; a project to beautify Schenley Plaza, a parking area in Oakland; and money to reinvigorate the stagnant Fifth-Forbes retail area of Downtown. Rendell may provide funds for some of those projects today also.

After dropping the money in Pittsburgh, Rendell will move on to Duquesne for an 11:30 a.m. news conference, where he'll make 12 more "significant community and economic development announcements" for projects in Allegheny County but outside the city.

Three of the projects to be funded are:

* New construction at the Cochrandale redevelopment site in Duquesne, which is a five-acre area where a public housing community once stood but which has since been cleared.

* A "flyover ramp" that will provide new and better access to the Leetsdale Industrial Park in the western portion of Allegheny County.

* New uses for an old industrial site in McKeesport called the Firth-Sterling land.

Rendell also may provide funding for other projects contained on last year's list prepared by the Growth Alliance.

These include a new 60-acre light industrial park called the Collier Commerce Center; new access roads into the City Center of Duquesne and the Industrial Center of McKeesport, the new names for two former steel mill sites along the Mon; creation of a residential/commercial area in Braddock.