Officials review highway proposals
By Steve Ostrosky Herald-Standard
Local and state officials gathered Thursday to review the latest plans for a $4 million project to improve Matthew Drive as development continues on the corridor.
Engineer Terry McMillen reviewed three different proposals to upgrade the stretch of Matthew Drive between Route 21 and the new Widewaters development.
The preferred alternative includes widening the road to four lanes and developing an intersection with a traffic light at the present entrance to the Cherry Tree Square shopping center for access to that center and the Kmart and Lowe’s retail area, he said.
Ramps would be constructed to provide access into Kmart and most of the traffic would be controlled by a signal, McMillen said. He noted that Kmart officials originally balked at the plan because it would involve taking some of its property and reconfiguring its parking lot.
“This design is preferred because you’ll have one light where you can enter both sites,” he said.
In response to the resistance, another alternative was developed, which calls for the installation of a traffic light at the current entrance to Wal-Mart and keeping both entrances to Kmart. The road would be widened to four lanes, but McMillen said the traffic would not flow as well along Matthew Drive as the other proposal.
However, he said company officials have recently expressed a willingness to meet with PennDOT and the South Union Township supervisors to again discuss the preferred alignment for the roadway.
Bob Schiffbauer, township supervisor, said the project is vital to the continued growth in that area, including a Target store that is planned and future retail projects in the Fayette County Business Park.
“The Cherry Tree area has become the hub of Fayette County and a regional shopping hub,” he said. “We have to be able to handle the volume of traffic and the growth out there.”
He said the area is often congested and will likely get more congested once more development continues along Matthew Drive.
“With what is being developed and what we already have now, we feel it is imperative to move this along to accommodate that growth,” Schiffbauer said. “If not, we’re going to have a mess.”
He stressed that whatever solution is agreed upon needs to be implemented soon because more development is on the way.
“This is a project that’s a must,” he said.
Bill Piper, township transportation consultant, said the Matthew Drive is one part of a five-phase improvement in that area, which includes extending the road into the Business Park, improving New Salem Road, upgrading Route 21, and connecting the Mon-Fayette Expressway to the Business Park.
“You’ll have four-lane roads in all directions not like Pittsburgh, the Waterfront or Robinson, where there is congestion in and out,” he said. “We’re trying to prevent that with the cooperation of the township supervisors, country commissioners, PennDOT and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.”
William Beaumariage, PennDOT project manager, said the traffic study on the preferred alignment has already been approved, and he is awaiting a review of the study on the other plan.
He said the improvements to Matthew Drive include adding a second on-ramp to Route 119 to improve traffic flow coming down the road to the intersection with Route 21.
Beaumariage said he would like a decision made this fall so that right-of-way acquisitions and final design can take place. If bids are awarded by the end of 2006, he said construction could begin in the spring of 2007 and should take one construction season to complete.
Schiffbauer said any more delays will only push back the timeline for the project, which he said is already a year behind the original schedule.
“We can only wait so long before we get to a point, a drop-dead date when we have to proceed,” he said. “We don’t want a situation like Robinson Town Center, where the traffic discourages people from coming and it hurts businesses.”