Both Rankin and Swissvale wanted assurance that whatever development occurred on the historic Carrie Furnace site (a county brownfield development) would provide adequate access to and from the expressway while minimizing impacts on the site.

One evening, Officers Ellis Watson and Joseph DiMaria of the Swissvale, Pennsylvania, Police Department responded to a building fully engulfed in flames.

In the last few months of the war, however, the Air Service addressed this deficiency by establishing specialized schools at various factories where engines were being built, including the Liberty Motor School in Detroit, Michigan; the Hispano-Suiza School at New Brunswick, New Jersey; and the Le Rhone Engine Course at Swissvale, Pennsylvania.