The chances of completing the Mon-Fayette Expressway and Southern Beltway, two regional highways that would alleviate congestion in the city and near the airport, are famously slim. With $3.6 billion in work yet to be done and public highway dollars in short supply, it will take nothing short of a creative solution to finish these decades-old projects.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's recent move to explore a public-private partnership to finance some or all of the remaining work could be the best -- maybe only -- hope for completing the more than 100 miles of limited-access toll roads.

To date, $1.4 billion has been spent, with 35 miles of the Mon-Fayette Expressway in use near the Mon Valley, from Route 51 in Jefferson Hills almost to Interstate 68 in West Virginia. In 2012, a 17-mile stretch between Brownsville and Uniontown will be completed with dollars already in hand. At Pittsburgh International Airport, the six-mile Findlay Connector is open, saving time for Route 22 travelers on the first completed segment of the Southern Beltway.

That leaves a little more than 50 miles to go, some of it designed to run along communities like Braddock, Hazelwood and Turtle Creek and around the Squirrel Tunnel as a trip-shortening bypass. These and other towns have waited patiently for certainty on whether the nearby highway will be completed. The public also wants to know if the roadways being built by portions of their gasoline taxes, driver's licenses and registration fees will ever reach their destinations.

Although the Post-Gazette has critical reservations about plans to lease the existing turnpike to private operators as a way to raise road maintenance funds, it is something different to draw on private partners to finish proposed highways that otherwise might not come to fruition. If the new links are truly valuable -- in reducing monumental traffic backups, bringing jobs and development to the region and making for a stronger Pittsburgh -- then it's worth exploring a deal with a few private partners.

In the end, the new toll roads will have to be quality highways that are an affordable choice for the driving public. Pittsburghers deserve nothing less -- regardless of who is covering the construction.