Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure said Tuesday it plans to use more than $560,000 in grant money on three transportation improvement projects.
Mayor Bill Peduto’s office said the projects support the mayor’s Complete Streets and Vision Zero policies, which aim to ensure all Pittsburghers — motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians — can travel safely regardless of their mode of travel. The projects also aim to support the city’s Climate Action Plan by improving traffic flow and, in turn, reducing emissions in residential and business corridors.
“These policies recognize that our streets don’t just serve vehicles, they serve people,” said Molly Onufer, a spokeswoman for Peduto. “The priority when redesigning and improving streets must be so that everyone in the city of Pittsburgh can safely get where they’re going no matter how they choose to get there and that we design streets to achieve the vision of zero traffic fatalities.”
DOMI’s Traffic Management Center project received $266,736 from PennDOT’s Green Light-Go Grant Program. The city said the money will be put toward developing fiber network infrastructure that will connect the center to traffic signals throughout Pittsburgh. This marks the city’s first Traffic Management Center that will allow DOMI to remotely manage and adjust all traffic signals from a centralized location, which officials hope will improve safety and traffic flow.
PennDOT also awarded an additional $132,000 through its Green Light-Go initiative to fund the East End Signal Retiming Project. The Baum Boulevard, Center Avenue and Penn Avenue corridors have seen increases in population and business activity, the city said. The project aims to respond to that growth by retiming 50 traffic signals to improving traffic flow in the area and adapt the lights to accommodate the growing numbers of pedestrians, bicyclists, scooter riders, public transit users and vehicle traffic.
DOMI also received $162,000 from the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County for the Homewood Complete Streets Planning project, part of the Homewood Active Mobility Improvement Plan. The city said the initiative will focus on making improvements that the community has identified to help them more safely navigate their neighborhood, including road and sidewalk improvements, traffic calming measures and access to public transportation.
The grants were presented to City Council Tuesday.
