North Huntingdon police plan to step up traffic enforcement along a 1.5-mile stretch of Route 30 from Carpenter to Malts lanes in the western end of the township after numerous crashes there, including at least six fatalities in the past five years.
“That corridor is dangerous,” North Huntingdon police Chief Robert Rizzo said. “There are people dying in that corridor. We have to do something.”
The police department will take a “total approach” to traffic enforcement, including speeding, aggressive driving, distracted driving, enforcement of traffic-control devices and traffic light enforcement, Rizzo said.
“We are hoping to bring awareness to the dangers of driving this portion of Route 30 and to get motorists to just pay attention and slow down while driving on Route 30 in North Huntingdon Township,” Rizzo said.
The grim statistics bear out the need for an increased police presence in that section of the road, which PennDOT says has an average daily traffic volume of 19,000 vehicles.
In February 2018, four people were killed in a head-on collision near the Jim Shorkey Mitsubishi dealership when a westbound vehicle crossed the center line and collided with an eastbound vehicle. In December 2018, a man was killed in a crash at the Cherry Lane intersection. In November 2022, six people were injured in a two-vehicle crash at the Colonial Manor Road intersection.
Speed has been a factor in the crashes, Rizzo said. The speed limit in that area of Route 30 is 40 mph, and, unlike the section of the road between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the 10th Street intersection in Irwin that has five traffic signals, there is just one — at Colonial Manor Road — between Malts and Carpenter lanes.
“It’s not safe to be speeding through there,” Rizzo said.
There have been 197 crashes from the Allegheny-Westmoreland border to Malts Lane from 2019 to March, Rizzo said, including 38 at the Colonial Manor Road intersection and 17 at the Skellytown Road intersection. So far this year, there have been six crashes in that section of Route 30.
Crashes also have occurred when drivers make a left turn either from Route 30 or from the intersecting streets, Rizzo said.
In November 2021, a woman was killed at the intersection of Malts Lane and Route 30 when the car in which she was riding was hit by a vehicle as it was traveling across the eastbound lanes of the highway to go westbound.
The additional traffic enforcement and presence by township police “will certainly slow people down,” said Nick Lenhart, owner of Lenhart’s Service Center, which operates a towing service in the area.
“I think the chief is doing the right thing, being very proactive,” said Lenhart, saying his company has been called to the scene of some of the fatal crashes.
PennDOT safety project
PennDOT plans to eliminate the left turns from the intersecting roads — about 20 between Malts and Carpenter lanes — with jersey barriers on the median strip and jug-handle turnoffs where vehicles can safely cross the highway as part of a Route 30 safety project from the 10th Street intersection in Irwin to Route 48 intersection in North Versailles.
“We believe there are a number of causes and factors, and some are addressed with the eventual Route 30 redesign,” said Mike Turley, township assistant manager.
The western end of the project’s scope, from North Versailles to Carpenter Lane/Leger Road, is in the preliminary design phase that is expected to be completed in May and then will transition to the final design, according to PennDOT’s District 12 in Uniontown. The state is not expected to advertise for construction bids until August 2025, according to the PennDOT website. Based on current estimates, PennDOT said the western section alone could cost between $50 million and $100 million.
PennDOT has not determined when the design phase of the sections east of the western end of the safety project will begin.
North Huntingdon officials have discussed with PennDOT representatives what could be done in the interim, but there are no specifics or decisions yet, Turley said. The township did approve an ordinance in November 2021 prohibiting left turns onto Route 30 from Cherry, Soltis and Shrader lanes.
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“We are hoping, with the information awareness campaign and increased enforcement, we can have an impact on reducing the number of crashes,” Rizzo said.
Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe by email at jnapsha@triblive.com or via Twitter .