Pennsylvania Turnpike officials vowed today to work with Oakland interests to see that the northern interchange of the Mon-Fayette Expressway helps, not hurts, the Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Besides conducting up-to-date traffic counts, they promised that the influential Allegheny Conference's Oakland Investment Committee and Oakland Task Force would have considerable input on a final design, particularly when it comes to the Bates Street appendage of the complex interchange.

"When I became CEO, I made a commitment (in a meeting with Mayor Tom Murphy) that we would be a more open, more friendly organization," said Joe Brimmeier, the toll agency's top official.

Brimmeier and staff members working on the $2 billion, 24-mile northern end of the Mon-Fayette Expressway addressed concerns of the Oakland interests at a meeting at the Pittsburgh School for the Blind.

The Oakland Investment Committee consists of top officials from Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, Carnegie Museums & Library, UPMC Health System, Kennametal Inc., Heinz Endowments and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

When the two charitable foundations hired an engineering consultant, Trans Associates, to examine impacts, they found the Mon-Fayette Expressway interchange would create greater traffic congestion than the turnpike's estimate.

Bates is a relatively short, two-lane connection linking Oakland and the Boulevard of Allies with the Parkway East, Second Avenue and the Hot Metal Bridge, via a short jog on Second Avenue. About 1,000 vehicles an hour squeeze onto Bates during the rush hours, impacting all roads in he area. Traffic to and from Second Avenue must pass under an old railroad trestle.

Mon-Fayette Expressway plans that originally called for interchange connections to the Parkway East and Second Avenue were revised to include widening Bates Street and adding expressway ramps as a $30 million third entry-exit point.

That has concerned the Oakland stakeholders, who see 50,000 workers, students, visitors and medical patients converging on the area on weekdays.

Turnpike officials admitted that older traffic counts and a different methodology were used in the preliminary planning and environmental impact process. Since then, the South Side Works has grown considerably and plans are emerging to develop the old J&L/LTV steel mill site in Hazelwood, part of the expressway corridor.