Work is set to begin Monday on improvements to nine intersections in downtown Latrobe.

The $3.4 million PennDOT project will install updated traffic signals along Main and Depot streets where they intersect Jefferson, Ligonier and Alexandria streets, and along Ligonier at the intersections of Weldon, Spring and Chestnut streets.

Contractor Wyoming Electric and Signal of Wyoming, Pa., will begin by digging test pits and boring under the streets. “They’ll be putting conduit in and getting ready so we can turn the signals on later this year,” said Dominec Caruso, assistant construction engineer with PennDOT District 12.

He said the new signals “will all talk to each other, so there will be a much better traffic flow. It will be a smoother ride with less congestion.”

Caruso said paving work at the intersections is not expected until the fall. Sections of the downtown streets have been torn up in recent months as the Latrobe Municipal Authority updated water lines in anticipation of the PennDOT project.

Pedestrians also will see improvements at the intersections, including curb ramps that are compliant with handicapped-accessible guidelines and crosswalks with a herring-bone design, created with a thermoplastic application.

Late Latrobe native and beloved children’s television host Fred Rogers will be represented at each of the Jefferson Street intersections, with announcements that provide pedestrians guidance on when it’s safe to cross the street. The goal is to use Rogers’ actual voice, according to Jarod Trunzo, executive director of the Latrobe Community Revitalization Program.

Trunzo noted the signal poles will match the design of decorative street lamps that recently were installed along downtown sidewalks.

Caruso said pedestrians will be directed around curb ramps that are under construction at a given intersection. “We’re not going to shut down all four ramps in one area,” he said.

The contractor originally was expected to complete the project by mid-November, but that was before the covid-19 pandemic delayed work on numerous PennDOT projects, including the Latrobe intersections.

“We might have to put up a couple of signal poles next year,” Caruso said.

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