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New signals, new bridge to speed traffic through Homestead
Monday, August 07, 2000 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Driving on busy Eighth Avenue through Munhall, Homestead and West Homestead has never been a picnic.
Sandcastle water park sits at the western border of the stretch of road, also known as Route 837. Kennywood Park is just a couple of miles to the east, and the Homestead High-Level Bridge feeds a steady stream of cars from the north onto it.
Nearly every intersection of Homestead's main drag has a traffic light and vehicles frequently flow in from side streets.
With the Glenwood Bridge closed for repairs since March, and throngs of customers flocking to the new theaters, stores and restaurants at the burgeoning Waterfront development, traffic is even heavier, especially during morning and evening rush hours.
But help is finally on the way.
Late last month, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation began a two-phase, $1.3 million project to replace outmoded traffic signals at the many intersections along Eighth Avenue with computerized and synchronized signals intended to speed the flow of traffic.
And engineering work has begun on an even bigger project -- construction of a $7.5 million "West Bridge" to run between Sandcastle and the Waterfront.
It will be a flyover structure that will carry a new road above existing railroad tracks and link Route 837 with Fifth Avenue, the road that comes off a ramp from the high-level bridge and runs past Loews Theatres and then to Sandcastle.
The new West Bridge, a two-year project, won't open until summer 2002. But once it does, cars heading east on Route 837 in West Homestead will be able to turn left and enter the Waterfront without having to travel on busy Eighth Avenue through the heart of Homestead, said Barry Ford, vice president of Continental Real Estate, developer of the $300 million shopping and entertainment complex.
West Bridge should prove to be especially beneficial to motorists approaching from the south and west, he said. Currently, traffic on Route 837 has to go all the way to Amity Street and cross the railroad tracks in order to enter the Waterfront.
The new bridge will be the counterpart to the existing, but considerably smaller, East Bridge. Cars traveling on Route 837 in Munhall can use it to pass over the tracks and enter the complex at its eastern border, near the blue Damascus-Bishop Tube Co. Inc. buildings.
As for the new computerized traffic signals, PennDOT has begun work on the $600,000 first phase, which includes most of the intersections along 837 in West Homestead. That work should be finished by October, when the $700,000 second phase will begin on Eighth Avenue in Homestead and Munhall.
That phase is to be finished by spring.
The federal transportation funds were secured by the former Allegheny County commissioners, Mike Dawida and Bob Cranmer, Ford said.
"Some of the existing traffic signals hang on tether wire," which isn't a very secure system, said Homestead Manager Richard Sharkey. "The new traffic signals will be on 'mast arms,' which are more solid and sturdy."
There will be fiber-optic cables linking all the lights along Eighth Avenue through the three boroughs, and sensors in the pavement on crossing streets.
Those sensors will change traffic lights on Eighth Avenue only when necessary -- only when cars approach from crossing streets -- which should help to maintain a steady flow of traffic on Route 837. Timers now change the lights whether there is a need to stop traffic on Eighth Avenue or not.
Also, lines will finally be painted on the Eighth Avenue pavement, marking separate lanes for eastbound cars making left turns into the Waterfront -- or westbound cars making right turns -- as well as for cars going straight. New overhead and street signs are also planned, Ford said.
"We don't want [the Waterfront] to negatively impact our communities," he said. With the new traffic lights and other changes, "I think they'll be in a better spot [regarding traffic flow] when we're done than when we started."
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