Although the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission opposes a long-term lease of its historic mainline, the five-member board now wants to know if private corporations are interested in building and financing the northern section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway and remaining pieces of the Southern Beltway.

At its meeting yesterday, the commission approved advertising for "expressions of interest" in forming a public-private partnership "for the financing and/or design, engineering, construction [and] operation of the unbuilt sections" of the two toll roads.

The three sections represent about 50 miles of limited-access highway in Allegheny and Washington counties and carry a price tag estimated at $5.2 billion to complete.

About 35 miles of the Mon-Fayette Expressway are open and 17 miles between Brownsville and Uniontown are being built, leaving incomplete the 24-mile, Y-shaped section between Route 51, Pittsburgh and Monroeville. Final design of the section began two years ago.

Six miles of the Southern Beltway are open as the Findlay Connector, leading from Route 22 in Robinson, Washington County, to Route 60 and Pittsburgh International Airport. Two sections remain unfinished: one from Interstate 79 near Southpointe to Route 22, and another from the Mon-Fayette Expressway near Finleyville to I-79.

The commission's action came despite its opposition to Gov. Ed Rendell's plans to test the investment market to create a public-private partnership and lease the 360-mile east-west mainline and 110-mile Northeast Extension.

The turnpike commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation instead became parties to a unique public-public partnership created by the Legislature's passage last summer of Act 44, designed to generate $116 billion over the next 50 years by raising turnpike tolls and converting Interstate 80 to a toll road.

Turnpike commission Chief Executive Officer Joe Brimmeier said looking to the private market for toll road expansions represents a commitment "to analyze all funding options, including public-private partnerships, or 'P3s,' which we have been exploring for the last 12 months or more."

Another group of project supporters sought similar "letters of interest" from private firms nearly a year ago. Called the Expressway Partnership Initiative, it was formed mainly by the Mon Valley Progress Council and Monroeville Area Chamber of Commerce, and lists Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato as leaders of its efforts to complete the toll roads.

It could not be learned if the group will continue to pursue a public-private partnership on its own or join the turnpike commission's initiative.

Also, as recently as December, the turnpike commission presented a plan to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission to use $578 million from Act 44 toward the estimated $659 million cost of building the next 13.3-mile section of the Southern Beltway.

Yesterday, turnpike commission officials said they were acting at the behest of state Rep. Joe Markosek, D-Monroeville, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. In a letter to Mr. Brimmeier, he asked the agency to consider a public-private partnership and other ways the private sector can be utilized to accelerate construction.

Mr. Markosek said while completion of the toll roads is of "critical importance to the economic viability and survival" of the region, "I am keenly aware of the limited financial resources available for transportation infrastructure and capacity improvement projects."

So far, the turnpike commission has been financing expressway and beltway construction by issuing bonds that are being repaid through a share of the state's gasoline tax and a $28 million-a-year earmark from motor vehicle registration fees.

"We have maximized the revenue from [those] two streams of state funding created specifically for turnpike expansion projects," Mr. Brimmeier said.

Mr. Markosek said state funding is no longer providing enough money and "not getting the job done on a reasonable timeline."

"The federal government has made no significant contribution," he said. "People rightly want to see the fruition of these highways," which the General Assembly directed the turnpike commission to build with the passage of legislation in 1985.