Despite planning delays and objections from one businessman, McKeesport is continuing with plans to build a PennDOT-funded bridge from Lysle Boulevard to the old National Tube Works site on the other side of the railroad tracks.

McKeesport council, at a special meeting last Thursday, approved a measure that will allow the city to execute an agreement with Allegheny County by which the county will act as the sponsor of the project. McKeesport has been the overseer of the $15 million project, which will build two bridges, or flyover ramps as they are being called, over tracks to link McKeesport and Duquesne with former mill sites on their respective sides of the Monongahela River.

Initially, McKeesport, which wants the bridge to serve approximately 1,500 people who work in businesses that are redeveloping the mill site, had agreed to pay costs for the projects, then be reimbursed by the state.

McKeesport solicitor Jason Elash said the need for a new financing arrangement was related to site acquisition delays and design problems on the McKeesport side of the project. Construction of the Duquesne span is scheduled to start this fall, he said, while construction of the McKeesport bridge might not get under way for one or two years.

"It's hard for us to go to the taxpayers of McKeesport and say, 'You're going to pay interest on interim financing to build a bridge in Duquesne,' " Mr. Elash said. "We're the local sponsor, but now the county is going to be the go-between. They'll bear the interest costs rather than the taxpayers here.

"McKeesport is still going to be the agent, but the county is going to front the money for construction, land acquisition and things of that nature."

Getting permission from CSX to span the tracks was one of the more complex problems planners faced in McKeesport, though such issues have been resolved, Mr. Elash said.

Businessman Jeff Ross has complained to the city that his Foodland Supermarket at Lysle Boulevard and Coursin Street and other businesses at the intersection where the span is to be built will be adversely affected by it. In particular, bridge construction is expected to take portions of the parking lots for Eat'n Park and Rite Aid. Mr. Ross, who circulated a petition against the flyover bridge, believes such a measure will drive those businesses out.

He questions the logic of building the bridge at a location where there are successful businesses and advocates the city build the ramp in a place where it will have less impact on the economy.

"I don't understand why nobody cares," said Mr. Ross, who has complained about the location to McKeesport Mayor Jim Brewster and state Sen. Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, among others. Most recently, Mr. Ross said, he sent a letter with his concerns to county Chief Executive Dan Onorato which, he said, generated "zero response."

Though Mr. Ross was not at the special session last week, he said his "next step is going to be the governor because the governor ultimately controls PennDOT."

McKeesport officials have defended the ramp's location for economic and engineering reasons and said the commercial impact on the intersection will not be as dire as Mr. Ross predicts.

"I personally do not see the issue as he sees it," Mayor Brewster said. "We have an obligation to give access to the businesses over [in the mill site]."

"I think that once the ramp comes over, [Mr. Ross] will actually get more business at his location because now you'll have a direct exit from the mill site," Mr. Brewster said. He said the city valued Mr. Ross' business, and that it wanted to minimize the impact construction will have on his store.