Traffic grant to complete South Fayette adaptive signal project
The intersection at Bursca Drive and Washington Pike will be receiving an adaptive traffic signal to speed up traffic.
The intersection at Twin Ponds Lane and Washington Pike, outside of the Giant Eagle, will be receiving an adaptive traffic signal to speed up traffic.
Last year, South Fayette Township received a $387,000 state grant aimed at reducing traffic on Washington Pike and Route 50.
Earlier this month, the township announced it received the same grant, this time for $77,000, to complete the project. The Green Light-Go Municipal Signal Partnership Program is a statewide grant that began in 2013. The grant requires a 20 percent match, meaning the township will be responsible to pay $15,000 toward the project.
Township manager Ryan Eggleston said the grant money will go to implementing adaptive signals, which are designed to align the timing of the traffic lights to the flow of traffic. Rather than a programmed timer, the adaptive signals will create databases of information, share it with the other adaptive signals in the township and they will all be timed efficiently.
“It’s monitoring and adjusting based on live real-time data, so it’s basically cueing and picking up cars every day and kind of building its own database,” Eggleston said. “It used to be all program or time-sensed. This is actually based on the traffic patterns that are actually happening. It’s very kind of futuristic.”
Starting within a month, Eggleston said the adaptive system will be implemented into seven intersections in the township. Those intersections are part of the original, larger grant. Within a year, two more intersections will use the system, meaning every traffic-centric light on Washington Pike and Route 50 in the township will be adaptive. The two intersections that the most recent grant will go toward are Bursca Drive at Washington Pike and Twin Ponds Lane at Washington Pike.
“We knew those two lights were really the only other lights right now on that kind of stretch of Washington Pike and Route 50 that weren’t tied in,” Eggleston said.
Eggleston said adaptive signals have been used in other townships in the commonwealth, mostly in the east.
Like most of the South Hills community, traffic is an issue in South Fayette, Eggleston said. While this system will help, it isn’t the “end all, be all,” he said.
“We’re excited about it and excited to see how the adaptive helps to kind of improve some traffic flow as we continue to focus traffic improvement in the township,” Eggleston said. “Obviously, traffic is something we’re focused on and have been working closely on.”