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Changes recommended for Mt. Lebanon’s Morgan Drive

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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Changes could be coming to the street that serves the Mt. Lebanon Recreation Center.

Morgan Drive has two outbound lanes, with one only for right turns onto Cedar Boulevard. The other serves both left-turning vehicles and those proceeding straight onto Greenhurst Drive.

The Mt. Lebanon Traffic Board has recommended a plan to reverse the lanes’ flow designations, providing for a left-turn-only lane, and to make other improvements to help improve traffic flow, especially during times of heavier pedestrian and vehicular use in conjunction with nearby Mt. Lebanon High School.

Final approval of the plan is subject to a vote by the municipal commission because its implementation involves a capital expense, according to Mike Haberman, traffic engineer with Gateway Engineers.

At the traffic board’s Jan. 8 meeting, he explained a problem that tends to occur for Greenhurst-bound motorists.

“They’re now getting stuck behind somebody turning left, and the phenomenon that’s happening is that they’re going over to that right lane and trying to speed through,” he said.

Along with designating the left lane solely for making left turns, the recommendation also is to provide an advanced left-turn arrow within the traffic signal.

“During that phase, the pedestrian walk signal will be ‘don’t walk,'” Haberman explained. “That will allow us to relieve some of the traffic on Morgan.”

He estimated the cost of the project, which will involve new markings and signs, at about $1,000 if municipal employees handle changing the signal.

In other traffic board business:

  • The board approved measures to help with visibility at the intersection of Sylvandell Drive, Robb Hollow Road and Driftwood Drive, near Hoover Elementary School.

Recommended improvements include replacing the current parallel-line crosswalks with a “piano key” design, the appearance of which, indeed, resembles a piano’s white and black keys.

“It’s helpful for maintenance. It’s helpful for visibility,” Haberman said. “They’re a little bit easier to see for a driver, and then from a maintenance standpoint, the way they’re installed, you don’t have markings where the tires actually go, so they don’t wear like parallel lines do.”

Also, new fluorescent green-yellow pedestrian crossing signs will replace the ones now standing.

  • The board made a recommendation to Mt. Lebanon Commission to approve an alternatives analysis in the vicinity of Arden Road, residents of which requested possible traffic-calming measures.

The objective is to gather data from intersections serving Arden, Beverly and Cochran roads, along with Parker Drive and other streets in that area, to help determine whether traffic calming is warranted.

Haberman said that Tri-State Traffic Data, based in Chester County, has submitted a proposal to complement Gateway’s work on the study, and the total cost would be about $13,000.

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