Allegheny County communities get $6.1 million in grants for traffic light upgrades

More than 20 intersections across Allegheny County will receive updated traffic signals worth more than $6.1 million under state grants announced Wednesday.

The improvements in this area are part of $30 million in Pennsylvania Department of Transportation grants that will upgrade signals in 73 municipalities across the state. The grants under the Green Light-Go program are designed to improve safety by reducing congestion and improving traffic flow.

The largest grant in this area is $2.32 million for five signal projects in Pittsburgh: Allegheny and Western avenues on the North Side; Beechwood Boulevard at Wilkins and Linden avenues, Squirrel Hill; Brownsville Road at Maytide Street and Sankey Avenue, Carrick; Fifth and Morewood avenues, Oakland; and Muriel and South 10^th streets, South Side.

Jacob Williams, spokesman for the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, said the department will begin designing the intersection improvements once the money is released in the fall. Then it will have a better idea of exactly what work will be done and when it might begin.

Several of the grants will fund more than one project in the same area. For example, North Fayette received two grants worth a total of $389,000 for adjacent intersections on Summit Park Drive at the Lafayette Plaza shopping center and Scott received $646,000 for upgrades to consecutive signals on Bower Hill Road at Painters Run Road and Rockhill Road.

Here are the other projects funded in Allegheny County:

• Findlay — $117,422 to replace controller, signing, vehicular and pedestrian heads at Cliff Mine Road and Summit Park Drive.
• Monroeville — $247,025 for updated signal equipment on Monroeville Boulevard at Ivanhoe Drive.
• Monroeville — $114,369 for municipality-wide Controller Modernization Project.
• Monroeville — $522,743 for Business Route 22 and Route 48 Coordination Modernization Project.
• Ohio Township — $248,666 for modernization of traffic signal equipment at intersection of Mount Nebo Road (Route 4022) and Arndt Road.
• Pine — $302,700 for updated traffic signal equipment that spans five intersections along Route 19 corridor in the township.
• Ross — $241,448 for modernization of traffic signal equipment at intersection of Babcock Boulevard and Rochester Road.
• Ross — $312,134 for modernization of traffic signal equipment at Babcock Boulevard and Thompson Run Road.
• Swissvale — $50,000 for traffic signal warrant study and possible signal removal at the intersection of Monongahela and Schoyer avenues.
• Wilkinsburg — $600,252 for traffic signal equipment modernization at East Swissvale and Ross/Rebecca avenues.