Drivers frustrated with improvements at intersection of Golden Mile Highway, Saltsburg Road

The new traffic layout where Route 380 and Golden Mile Highway meet in Murrysville was intended to ease passage for trucks that must cross the highway on their way to a fracking well pad just up the road.

And while it might be more accommodating to truck traffic, it appears to be confusing for many other drivers.

The intersection is what Penn­DOT officials call a “continuous T,” whereby drivers headed west on Golden Mile Highway do not stop at all as they crest the hill and the road becomes Route 380. But the traffic light at the crest — which is meant to control only westbound traffic using a new turning lane onto Saltsburg Road — regularly causes drivers in the continuous lane to stop.

“The signal operation is still under construction with temporary conditions in place,” said PennDOT district traffic engineer David Parker. “To improve site conditions, the contractor has proposed to add louvers and relocate the signal heads.”

Over the course of an hour Wednesday morning, at least a half-dozen drivers passed the “right lane keep moving” sign only to drastically slow down and in some cases come to a full stop, backing up traffic at the top of a hill where the speed limit is 45 mph.

“It happens all day long, people stopping, brakes screeching, horns honking,” said Jeff Silvis of Murrysville, who lives opposite Saltsburg Road at the intersection. Driver confusion is only the latest issue Silvis has experienced with the changes to the intersection after he was forced to hire an attorney to prevent the project from taking part of his property frontage along Route 380.

Now, he said the newly configured intersection is creating a dangerous situation.

“The divider splits (Golden Mile Highway), and that traffic light is supposed to only control traffic turning left,” Silvis said. “But when people come over the hill, and they see not just one but two traffic lights — they stop. It’s a freaking mess.”

Drivers turning left from Saltsburg Road onto Route 380 as they head west encounter fast-moving traffic and a shorter than expected merge lane. That is because, in addition to the intersection improvements, there is now a dedicated left-turn lane just down the hill for traffic crossing the highway to the 380 Auction Warehouse.

Parker said the dedicated turn lane was added as part of recent highway safety improvements to reduce the high number of angle crashes at the 380 Auction intersection. When discussing those crashes in 2023, Murrysville police Chief Tom Kusinsky said the only way to stop those types of accidents would be by closing the gap where motorists turn by 380 Auction. Only one of 11 crashes along that stretch of road since 2019 involved a rear-end collision, according to Murrysville police data.

During the early stages of construction, a temporary light was installed specifically for the Silvis residence, which would trigger red signals for all except for the signal facing the Silvis driveway.

That light is no longer functional, and anytime Silvis leaves his house, he is forced to turn right — with barely any line of sight for oncoming traffic — into a lane where no one ever encounters a red light.

Parker said the current sight distance from Silvis’ driveway matches the conditions prior to construction.

“It’s a disaster,” Silvis said. “I’ve come home at times and been backed up because three lanes of traffic are full of people just sitting there going, ‘What do we do?’”

Nickaleen Neff of Murrysville said she will drive 10 minutes out of her way to avoid the newly configured intersection.

“Merging with traffic coming from (Route) 286 is dangerous. Cars come speeding up over the hill and traffic in the left lane has very little time to merge,” she said. “I’ve had cars in front of me come to a dead stop, and I’ve had cars behind me merge over before I can safely merge.”

Dina Hunsinger of Plum agreed.

“People in the right lane coming up from (Route) 286 don’t stop, and it creates a very stressful and dangerous situation,” she said.

Parker said traffic signal heads will be moved to reduce confusion for drivers turning left from Saltsburg Road onto Route 380, and louvers will reduce the visibility of the turning-lane signal to drivers in the free-flowing lane that carries Golden Mile onto westbound Route 380.