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Road projects starting in North Fayette
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Motorists may look forward to shopping trips with less traffic congestion, thanks to long-awaited road improvements that began this month in The Pointe at North Fayette shopping center.
A $1.6 million project is expected to relieve traffic congestion and improve flow on Summit Park Drive between the Interstate 376/Robinson Town Centre interchange and the Walmart entrance. Plans include widening the road, upgrading traffic signals and adding turn lanes.
It's just one of several road projects that will affect traffic in North Fayette.
Through early November on Summit Park, the project will cause lane closures from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays. Most of the stores are closed during those hours.
"It's not going to affect the rush-hour shopping stuff," North Fayette police Chief Jeffrey Falconer said.
The Summit Park Drive and Parkway West interchange, about eight miles southeast of Pittsburgh International Airport, serves The Pointe at North Fayette shopping center, The Mall at Robinson and Robinson Town Centre.
Bob Grimm, the North Fayette manager, said the road project will help alleviate backups by providing turning lanes for vehicles exiting the Parkway West.
"It should help ease some of the traffic burden down in that area," Mr. Grimm said. "It won't solve them, but it will help."
He said the work also positions the township to make a future connection of two portions of Montour Church Road. The sections are near the Lowe's store at The Pointe and near Tonidale at the Route 22/30 interchange.
Plans to improve Summit Park Drive have been in the works for more than a decade, Mr. Grimm said. The work is being funded by federal transportation money that was earmarked for the project about 15 years ago, he said.
The state Department of Transportation is overseeing the project in cooperation with North Fayette. The prime contractor is Golden Triangle Construction Company, Inc. of Imperial.
With the Summit Park Drive work limited to nighttime hours, other road projects in North Fayette may prove more inconvenient to drivers.
"These other projects are going to be the real headache," Chief Falconer said.
Long-term traffic restrictions were scheduled to begin Tuesday at the Imperial Five Points intersection of Route 30, Route 978, West Allegheny Road and two sections of Steubenville Pike. Through early June, Route 30 traffic will be reduced to a single, 10-foot-wide lane in both directions.
Through this fall, lane closures and single-lane, alternating traffic will occur on approaching roadways from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The junction handles traffic from the nearby West Allegheny middle and high school campus as well as vehicles going to and from the airport, North Fayette and Findlay neighborhoods and businesses, the Imperial Route 22/30 interchange and the Shop 'n Save shopping plaza.
Plum Contracting Inc. is expected to work through September to complete the $2.3 million project, including road widening, reconstruction and resurfacing; traffic signal updates; some island changes; installation of left-turn lanes from both directions of Route 30 onto Steubenville Pike and Steuben Street; and construction of a left-turn lane from Route 978 onto the westbound Route 22/30 highway ramp.
Just south of Five Points, a sewer line extension project on Route 978 -- known locally as Bateman Road -- will cause closures and a temporary detour from later this month to September.
Mr. Grimm said customers should be able to access all the Imperial-area businesses during construction on Bateman Road and at the Five Points intersection.
Other North Fayette road work this summer could cause additional detours.
PennDOT has proposed replacing a bridge beneath Noblestown Road next to Steele Auto Body, and Allegheny County plans to replace two bridges on Cliff Mine Road -- one at Mahoney Road near the Settle Inn, and the other at Enlow Road near the Highlands of Montour Run apartments, Mr. Grimm said.
Neither the state nor county has provided details yet, he said.
An additional project in Findlay is expected to affect traffic in North Fayette.
Detours and closures are scheduled to occur this summer at Route 30 and Clinton Road, about five miles north of the Five Points intersection.
The $500,000 Clinton project involves demolishing the former Mamone's Restaurant to widen the road, adding a right-turn lane on Clinton Road, providing better sight distance and improving the turning radius for large trucks.
Sometime during construction, the Route 30/Clinton Road intersection will be closed to all vehicles for a month. Traffic wanting to access Interstate 376 will have to detour north to Route 151 in Beaver County or south to either the Findlay Connector toll road or to the Route 22/30 highway ramp in Imperial.
First Published April 19, 2012 1:48 pm
