PennDOT looks to streamline traffic flow on Route 30

If you’ve ever waited for a green light on Route 30 in Hempfield, only to stop a few hundred feet later at another red light, you’re not alone.

PennDOT is planning to change that.

The familiar start-and-stop could become a thing of the past as the agency is planning an adaptive traffic signal system that will allow 11 lights in about 3 miles to coordinate with each other in real time. That will result in a better traffic flow, spokeswoman Valerie Petersen said.

“It’s more efficient as a motorist; you can keep moving,” she said.

The project involves traffic signals from North Greengate Road to Possum Hollow Road/West Penn Drive. The average daily traffic on that section of highway, heavily populated by businesses, ranges from 36,000 vehicles near Greensburg to 27,000 closer to Jeannette, according to PennDOT traffic volume maps.

The signals at the intersection with North Greengate and Tollgate Hill roads will be completely replaced. Minor upgrades will be made to the remaining 10 signals.

Traffic backlogs in that section depend on the day of the week and time of day, township manager Jason Winters said. He travels Route 30 to work and it’s typically not bad traffic-wise, but he opts to take Route 136 home.

“There’s people that dread going back and forth to the turnpike” or the other side of the township, he said.

The project will be a huge benefit “knowing it’s a corridor you could get stopped at really all of the signals,” Winters said.

Adaptive traffic signals can collect data on traffic flow through radar technology and adjust the light cycle to conditions, rather than changing from green to red at regular intervals. All 11 signals will be linked together.

“If there’s no one on the side roads, the light’s not going to change just because it’s supposed to,” Winters said.

Bids will be opened this year, and some work could start later in 2020. The project is slated for completion in 2021. Petersen asked that motorists be patient during the process, which she said could improve travel times by more than 10%.

A similar project in Murrysville has been successful, she said. Winters talked to officials in Murrysville, where he said some reported saving up to 10 minutes a day by hitting the lights at the right time.

That $2 million system started operating in 2016 on a 10-mile stretch of Route 22 between the #1 Cochran car dealership in Monroeville and Mark Drive in Salem. That includes seven signals in Monroeville, 11 in Murrysville and two in Salem.