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Newsmaker Bob McLean: Traffic officer waving goodbye to 31st St. Bridge post
Monday, July 31, 2000 By Jan Ackerman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
To many North Hills residents, Bob McLean is as much a part of their morning commute as their cups of coffee and the endless banter of morning talk radio.
McLean's the guy with the gray police uniform who directs traffic between 6 and 9 a.m. each weekday at East Ohio Street and the 31st Street Bridge, one of the busiest and scariest intersections in Allegheny County.
"You picked a bad day," McLean told a reporter Thursday, a day when there had been an accident on East Ohio Street, south of his post near the H.J. Heinz Co. plant.
"Traffic is probably backed up to Kittanning," he said.
It's hard to imagine that any day would be a good one for directing traffic at the intersection where speeding cars from Route 28 motor into a bottleneck.
But McLean and the intrepid commuters of Route 28 seem to take the delays in stride. Occasionally, someone honked or waved as they drove through the intersection. Occasionally, McLean jumped out to the edge of the sidewalk to urge a truck or car to get moving.
"Many people get to know me. They understand the situation and they are pretty cordial," he said.
McLean is a short-timer. Friday will be his last day at the corner, where he has been posted mornings for the past five years.
He turns 50 on Aug. 8. On Sept. 10, he leaves the Allegheny County payroll after 27 years as a patrolman.
The county will place someone new at the corner by the bridge, but Lt. Michael Stowell of the Allegheny County Police said it is a hard job to fill.
"Nobody aspires to be a traffic cop. ... You have to deal with the public and solve puzzles," Stowell said.
"The 31st street job is the toughest to fill," he continued. "Officer McLean took a job that nobody wanted and was diligent about it. He was punctual, rarely took a sick day and actually enjoyed what he did. And the public enjoyed having him at that post."
McLean will be moving into a new area of traffic direction. In retirement, he's going to help his wife, Nancy, keep track of the comings and goings of their 14 children. Five are biological, eight are adopted and one is a foster child. The group is interracial and four of the adopted children have Down syndrome. Eleven still live at home.
"We have eight acres, a 4,000-square-foot farmhouse," said McLean, who lives in Boggs, Armstrong County, which is like another world from the noise and pollution of East Ohio Street.
The McLeans have some animals: horses, goats, sheep and even a llama. McLean said he might eventually try to open a miniature golf course in Armstrong County so there's something for young people to do in his community.
And he's also going to help his wife, a nonworking registered nurse, with the home schooling of their brood.
It seems likely that the common sense qualities he uses to direct traffic also will help him direct children.
At the 31st Street Bridge, McLean controls the signals by pushing the six buttons on a little control box with buttons marked for East Ohio, the left turn on East Ohio, River Avenue, Herr's Island and Rialto Street, which is temporarily closed.
"I call it my Game Boy," he said.
Sometimes when the signals are too slow for the traffic flow, McLean waves trucks and cars through red lights and brings traffic from two different directions through the intersection.
"I have developed shortcuts," he said.
McLean also worked five years at the 40th Street Bridge. He usually directs traffic from the sidewalk, not from the middle of the street.
"He has had some close calls: cars coming at him, trucks coming at him, even a loose wheel flying in his direction," Stowell said.
"My wife complains about the way I drive. She says I'm reckless. She ought to come down here and see this," McLean said.
For the past seven years, Stowell said, Allegheny County police have controlled traffic at the 31st Street Bridge and East Ohio Street.
Route 28 is a state road. The bridge is under the jurisdiction of the city of Pittsburgh. Stowell said county police started patrolling the intersection after the city quit doing the job.
From 1994 to 1998, five people died in three accidents on the stretch from Route 28 between the Heinz plant and the 31st Street Bridge.
McLean doesn't get rattled by the traffic, but his hearing has suffered from all the noise.
What he likes best is the early schedule. By 9 a.m., the worst part of his day is over.
At that hour, he activates the automatic traffic signals at the bridge and goes back to North Park where other duties keep him occupied until he gets off work at 2 p.m.
Then it's back to the farm.
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Date of birth: Aug. 7, 1950