If you sit in Parkway East traffic that moves like frozen sludge, whether the Mon-Fayette Expressway is completed matters to you.

That's because the remaining 24 miles of the project -- which hasn't gotten farther north than Jefferson Hills -- are to include spurs to Monroeville and Pittsburgh that would provide a limited-access highway alternative to the massive daily backups around the Squirrel Hill Tunnels.

So a "town hall" meeting, sponsored by Pennsylvania Newspaper Association Foundation, Pennsylvania Cable Network and Trib Total Media and set for 7 to 9 p.m. next Wednesday in the McKeesport Area High School auditorium, should be of interest.

And though the event is billed as "Expressway to Rebirth of the Mon Valley," no one should lose sight of the expressway's potential to relieve congestion that isn't helping the economic health of the East Suburbs.

Many business people in the Mon Valley view completion of the expressway as essential to their communities' economic health. That opinion will be represented by panelists Joseph Kirk, Mon Valley Progress Council executive director, and Andrew Quinn, Kennywood director of community relations.

Also on the panel will be Joe Brimmeier, Turnpike Commission executive director, who is searching for ways to fund the project, and state Rep. Joe Markosek (D-Monroeville), chairman of the state House Transporation Committee. Though he's a staunch opponent of leasing the Turnpike, per se, to a private operator, Markosek supports a public-private partnership to fund the project's estimated $3 million cost.

Also on the panel will be Chad Amond, Monroeville Area Chamber of Commerce president, who also favors the private-public approach to funding.

How a finished Mon-Fayette would affect Mon Valley economics is debatable, and the project has its detractors -- especially in Braddock and Turtle Creek, which would experience disruption and displacement.

But given how much time -- and now, $3.65-a-gallon gas -- is wasted sitting in traffic on the Parkway East, many commuters gladly would pay tolls to use a new highway that avoids the Squirrel Hill Tunnels bottleneck.

In deciding the project's future, we think it's important that the needs of east suburban commuters play at least as important a role as the views of Mon Valley business people.