Officials are hoping a new flyover ramp, which will allow unimpeded access to the Regional Industrial Development Corporation Riverplace City Center in Duquesne, will spur development of the 250-acre former industrial site.

On March 28, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, broke ground on the 81-foot-long ramp. When constructed, it will cross active railroad tracks and connect state Route 837 to Center Avenue and a new extension of South Linden Street. It will be completed by March 2009.

Funding for the $12 million project is from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration. Mosites Construction Co., of Pittsburgh, will construct the ramp.

The flyover is also expected to help existing tenants on the site, which was once a U.S. Steel plant, operate more productively.

Those tenants include the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, American Textile Company, U.S. Steel training center, Thermal Transfer Corp., a state unemployment office, and KU Resources Inc.

While all the buildings are occupied, only about one-third of the acreage is being utilized, said Duquesne Mayor Phil Krivacek.

``This is probably one of the biggest things to happen to this site since the RIDC took it over, not only for Duquesne, but for the surrounding communities. It's going to open up the site for more construction and development, and generate more jobs. It is a boon to us,'' Mr. Krivacek said.

The county expects to begin a similar 97-foot flyover ramp in McKeesport in spring 2009, for $14 million.

The southern point of the McKeesport ramp will be off Lysle Boulevard between Eat 'n Park and Rite Aid. It will cross the railroad tracks and come down in the McKeesport RIDC campus, next to the Maglev building.

Like the Duquesne ramp, it will be funded by the FHA.