Murrysville seeks funding help to upgrade Route 22 signal coordination

Murrysville officials want to upgrade the adaptive system used to coordinate Route 22 traffic lights through the town’s commercial corridor.

“The system we have in place is about 12 years old, and we think it’s run its course,” Murrysville Chief Administrator Michael Nestico told council at its meeting this week.

Council approved municipal staff to apply for a grant from the state’s Multimodal Transportation Fund, which Nestico said he hoped could fund up to 70% of the project’s cost, estimated at up to $1 million.

“We have difficulty getting in touch with the company, Rhythm Engineering, for maintenance and other issues,” Nestico said. “A lot of communities are moving away from this system, and PennDOT is not recommending anymore that communities use it.”

Monroeville officials just up the highway moved away from the Rhythm adaptive system last year, taking advantage of an $800,000 grant from the state’s “Green Light Go” program.

It made upgrades to signal equipment and adaptive timers along Route 22. In addition, traffic lights along Route 48 in Monroeville were approved this year for inclusion in the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s SINC-UP project, which provides upgrades to traffic signals to increase efficiency.

PennDOT undertook a similar $2.5 million project in 2020 in Westmoreland County, coordinating 11 traffic signals along Route 30 in Hempfield. It went into effect in 2023.

Adaptive traffic signals can collect data on traffic flow through radar technology and adjust the light cycle to suit real-time conditions, rather than simply changing to red at regular intervals.

Nestico said the grant would be a huge help in funding those upgrades in Murrysville.

“We do have some money set aside in our capital improvements plan, but not nearly the full cost of updating the system,” he said.