After upgrading and coordinating traffic signals along several miles of Route 22 in Murrysville a little less than a decade ago, state transportation officials will continue the project west through Monroeville.
Monroeville will receive more than $800,000 for traffic signal upgrades through the state’s “Green Light-Go” initiative. It is among 73 municipalities receiving more than $30 million.
A little under $250,000 will go toward updated signal equipment along Monroeville Boulevard at Ivanhoe Drive, but the lion’s share will go toward modernizing signal controllers and coordinating lights, with the goal of relieving traffic congestion and allowing signals to respond to real-time conditions.
“This will build on prior projects which installed communications connectivity and adaptive signal technology,” PennDOT spokesperson Alexis Campbell said.
Adaptive traffic signals can collect data on traffic flow through radar technology and adjust the light cycle to suit real-time conditions, rather than changing from green to red at regular intervals.
“This will upgrade the controllers and facilitate collected automatic traffic signal performance measures to further fine-tune traffic operations,” Campbell said.
Green Light-Go grants are provided as reimbursement to municipalities for updates to improve the efficiency and operation of existing traffic signals.
Murrysville Mayor Regis Synan said nothing he’s ever seen the state do has generated the amount of positive feedback he got when the signal upgrades went into effect.
“The folks who live here know how it works and I think it’s been a real improvement,” Synan said. “When there’s a malfunction, it’s a problem and it slows things down, but that’s just part of proper maintenance.”
Synan said the project was timely, and that he’s seen traffic increase over the past decade on the Route 22 corridor.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the tolls on the Turnpike going up,” he said. “We have a good bit more truck traffic.”
Some drivers who use the highway did not share Synan’s enthusiasm.
“I haven’t seen much improvement and, in fact, I think the signals are worse,” said Sarah Hough of Murrysville. “There’s improvement if you hit the lights right. But the turn signal at Route 22 and Mellon/Manor Road often goes through two cycles before it will let people turn left onto Manor … and some of the less busy intersections in the heart of Murrysville take a long time to cycle through and allow people to turn onto Route 22 in either direction — the lights by Leone’s (Pet Supply) and Bondi (Printing Co.), for example.”
Elaine Lee of Penn Township’s Harrison City neighborhood said she has seen improvement along Route 22.
“When we’re catching the lights green, we can get through town much faster than before the changes,” she said.
Former Murrysville council member David Perry, who was on council when the project got under way, is optimistic.
“When it works and they have everything synced, as long as you go close to the speed limit, you can kind of zip right through,” Perry said. “If you’re doing 10 or 15 over, you’ll get stopped at a light and it slows you down. But going the speed limit, it works pretty well.”
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.