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Call him --- or her --- the "mad paperhanger of the 10th Ward."

Someone has been shinnying up light poles along West Fifth Avenue and hanging cardboard signs that say, "Fix this street!"

Mr. or Ms. Paperhanger can now hang a new piece of paper --- a thank you note to Gov. Ed Rendell.

At the request of three local legislators, the governor and state Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler on Wednesday promised $1 million to reconstruct the busy thoroughfare connecting Downtown with Glassport and the Mansfield Bridge.

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The money, a combination of federal stimulus funds and so-called "spike" or discretionary funding controlled by PennDOT, will probably also be enough to remove the streetcar tracks that have caused many of the potholes that plague the road.

City officials had previously estimated that a complete reconstruction of the four-lane street between the Jerome Avenue Bridge and the Mansfield Bridge would cost $900,000.

"Very, very good news," says Mayor Jim Brewster, who with other city officials learned late Wednesday afternoon that the governor had approved the funding.

Saying the road was in "deplorable condition" and needed "major resurfacing," state Reps. Marc Gergely (D-White Oak) and Bill Kortz (D-Dravosburg) and state Sen. Sean Logan (D-Monroeville) wrote to Rendell at the city's request to ask for $500,000 for the project.

"We could have never paved that street without their help," Brewster says.

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The three legislators had what Gergely calls a "very productive conversation" this week with the governor's office and PennDOT staff to explain the project was "shovel-ready" and didn't require any complicated environmental or legal approvals.

"It's not like we're building a new road," Gergely says. "We're resurfacing an existing road. I think we'll see this thing done this summer."

The project must be competitively bid and a contract let before any work can begin.

According to 2007 PennDOT data, 21,000 cars daily use that stretch of Fifth Avenue.

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The work also will include reconstruction of the ramps that connect Fifth Avenue to lower 10th Ward and comes as local, county and state officials finalize plans to reconstruct the Mansfield Bridge and its approach ramps.

PennDOT data indicates that 13,000 vehicles daily use the county-owned span, which connects the city with Dravosburg and is a major link between McKeesport and the South Hills of Pittsburgh.

Last overhauled in 1983 at a cost of $4.8 million, work on the Mansfield Bridge is expected to begin later this year. The total cost has been estimated at $95 million.

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Gergely says the Fifth Avenue reconstruction may be one of Western Pennsylvania's largest transportation projects this year, outside of those already approved as part of the federally funded infrastructure stimulus plan.

Because the road is so heavily traveled and connects several municipalities, he says it may be time to consider making it a state-maintained highway, though PennDOT would likely want the city to trade responsibility with the state for some other road.

Kortz's district doesn't include 10th Ward, Gergely notes, but his participation helped underscore that West Fifth Avenue was a project important to other communities besides the city.

The combined effort of all three local state legislators and the city was vital to winning the Rendell administration's approval, Gergely says: "It's nice when you can get a cooperative agreement and get everyone on the same page."