PennDOT boosts many area projects

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has announced $4.1 million in grants to "smart transportation" projects in the region that promote biking and walking and systems that bring together multiple types of transportation.

Saxonburg will get more than $1.4 million toward its historic Main Street revitalization, and Richland will get $1.3 million to make a commercial area on Route 8 more pedestrian-friendly and improve traffic flow.

The Airport Corridor Transportation Association will get $700,000 to make pedestrian, bicycle and transit improvements in the shopping complexes in Robinson and North Fayette.

Washington County will get $443,500 for completing nine miles of the Panhandle Trail, and the city of Pittsburgh will get $280,000 to advance its plan for a multimodal transportation corridor in the Strip District and Lawrenceville.

PennDOT awarded $24.7 million to 41 communities statewide in its second round of "smart transportation" grants, intended to advance projects that promote sustainability, including trail, pedestrian and transit-related improvements.

It chose the projects from 238 applications that sought more than $175 million.

The first round of funding in 2009 was $59.2 million to 50 projects, including 14 in the region. The biggest of those grants was $4 million to Point Park University for enhancements to the Wood Street corridor, now under construction.

Ray Rush, Main Street manager for Saxonburg, said the grant will provide new curbing, sidewalks, lighting, landscaping and improvements to fire hydrants, sewers and utility lines along Main Street from Pittsburgh and State streets to Rebecca Street -- about half of the borough's designated National Historic District.

The grant to Richland will add left-turn lanes and new traffic signals on Route 8 at Ewalt Road and provide pedestrian access from the Orchard Park neighborhood, the township's oldest and largest, to the Route 8 commercial district, said township Manager Dean Bastianini.

Lynn Manion, executive director of the Airport Corridor Transportation Association, said the grant would pay for sidewalks along Park Manor Boulevard, a striped bike lane from the Montour Trail to a bus stop near IKEA and a pedestrian crossing and "super" shelter at the bus stop.

The grant to Pittsburgh adds to a recent $1.5 million federal grant for the Allegheny Riverfront Green Boulevard project, in the Strip District and Lawrenceville, from 11th to 34th streets between Liberty Avenue and Railroad Street.

The Panhandle Trail stretches from Carnegie to near Weirton, W.Va., crossing through the Washington County towns of Midway and Burgettstown.

First published on January 7, 2011 at 12:00 am