Rep. Dan Miller announced Friday, May 12, Mt. Lebanon will receive almost $1 million in state traffic grants to improve traffic signals and intersections in the township.
Rep. Dan Miller announced Friday, May 12, Mt. Lebanon will receive almost $1 million in state traffic grants to improve traffic signals and intersections in the township.
Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon, said these grants will make the township safer, as he believes the most important public safety issue in Mt. Lebanon is traffic.
“The key is Mt. Lebanon is only 6.2 square miles. But the number of cars could be 25 [thousand] to 26 thousand on Washington Road a day,” Miller said. “That’s why these types of projects are important. To me this is a public safety initiative to help alleviate some of our traffic flow.”
The grants, which total $925,801, will improve three intersections and 30 traffic signals in Mt. Lebanon and are being funded by the Green Light-Go Municipal Signal Partnership Program.
The intersections along Castle Shannon Boulevard at Anawanda Street, Cedar Boulevard at Greenhurst Drive and Bower Hill road at Kelso Road will be given $562,281 from the grant.
The other $363,520 will go to traffic signal upgrades at 30 different intersections in Mt. Lebanon.
Miller said the Green Light-Go Program awarded $33 million across 90 statewide grants.
“Some of our roads and some of our intersections just aren’t up to date for the amount of driving we do today, and that’s why I think it’s important,” Miller said. “That’s why I applaud Mt. Lebanon in their diligent efforts in bringing in state funding.”
Municipal manager Keith McGill said the municipality is grateful for the funding from the grant.
“To be able to get these three signals addressed and upgrades to another 30 signals throughout the municipality, whether it’s radar detection, controllers, battery backup, all of those things help us from a funding standpoint but also to move traffic efficiently throughout the municipality,” McGill said.
While the grant is worth upwards of $1 million, it requires a 20 percent local match from the municipality, which Miller said would total about $231,500.
McGill said the municipality will budget for the money out of the general fund, but there is a possibility of reducing the cost through in-kind services.
“If we would be in a position where it would have to be completely financial, we’re in a position to be able to do that,” McGill said.
The three signals that will receive upgrades are some of the oldest in the township, according to McGill.
“We’ve had these signals, at least two of these signals, in our capital improvement plan for the last several years, but we’ve always sort of pushed them down the road,” McGill said. “Because if you saw the amount of money in the grant we received, it’s expensive to repair these signals.”
McGill said a secondary benefit of the grant is it could increase the inventory of backup parts for traffic signals, and with the parts being newer, it could decrease the amount of money spent on future maintenance.
“As technology changed, the signals changed, so we were always having to keep multiple spare parts available depending on the age of the signals,” McGill said. “Doing a comprehensive upgrade, which this will allow us to do, will make it much more efficient for us, from an inventory standpoint, not having to maintain three or four or five different versions of signal equipment, because they’ll all essentially be upgraded to the latest.”
To apply for the grant, McGill said the municipality worked with its traffic consultant, Gateway Engineers, who drafted and sent in the application.
Traffic in Mt. Lebanon, McGill said, is something the municipality is always looking to improve.
“As our neighbors to the south have grown, like Upper St. Clair and Peters Township, we have become a cut-through community for a lot of our neighboring communities, so traffic has always been an issue that’s sort of at the forefront of a lot of what we do,” McGill said. “Anything we can do to improve that safety factor is always beneficial.”