Details of Route 21 work unveiled
FRANKLIN TWP. – Plans for the Route 21 improvement in Greene County, Murtha Drive construction and Waynesburg Crossings projects in the township were on display in the municipal building on Friday. The project involves widening Route 21 to four lanes for 750 feet to a point just past the intersection where Murtha Drive will be constructed, project engineer Mara Pritchard said.
A traffic light will be installed at that intersection.
Murtha Drive will be a little less than a mile long and the first 3,000 feet off Route 21 will be four lanes, Pritchard said. It narrows into two lanes before it meets Rolling Meadow Road.
The Waynesburg Crossings development, which will feature a Wal-Mart Supercenter, will be built along the four-lane section of Murtha Drive, she said.
Rich Rust of Widmer Engineers, the firm that designed Waynesburg Crossings, said the Wal-Mart will be built on an 18-acre parcel, but there is 45 to 50 acres available for future development at the site.
Rust said he believes it won’t take long for other retail shops to move in after Wal-Mart opens.
“Everybody wants to follow them,” Rust said.
He said site preparation work at the Wal-Mart site is tentatively scheduled to begin this summer.
The store is expected to be open by Christmas 2007.
The Route 21-Murtha Drive intersection will also have a westbound stacking lane for turning left onto Murtha Drive and two lanes heading straight toward Waynesburg, Pritchard said.
The Route 21-Route 19 intersection will also see some major work.
An additional right turning lane will be added to make two lanes for traffic traveling from Route 21 to Route 19 toward Waynesburg, Pritchard said.
A lane will be added to Route 19 east heading out of Waynesburg so there will be two lanes that turn left to Route 21 and one lane that goes straight, she said.
Traffic signals at the intersection will be upgraded to accommodate the additional lanes.
At the Route 21-Elm Drive intersection, an additional lane will be added to Elm Drive.
The first 600 feet of Elm Drive heading south to Miller Lane will have two lanes, and the first 450 feet of Elm Drive heading north to Route 188 will have two lanes, Pritchard said.
Traffic signals and turning lanes will be installed at the I-79 northbound and southbound ramps, she said.
The Route 21 project is being managed by the Department of Transportation and Greene County is managing the Murtha Drive project.
County Economic Development Director Robbie Matesic said the Route 21 intersections had to be improved to handle the traffic that the Waynesburg Crossings development is expected to bring.
“All along, the public response has been very favorable,” Matesic said.
The federal government is paying for 80 percent of the work and the county’s required 20 percent match will be comprised on in-kind contributions.
McHolme Construction Co. of Monongahela, the developer of Waynesburg Crossings, is donating the land for the project to the county.
McHolme is also donating the cost of designing the Route 21 improvements and relocating gas lines to complete the match, said Pritchard.
She said the final Route 21 plans have to be submitted to PennDOT for its review by June 1.
Construction is expected to start this fall, Adam Smith, PennDOT’s project manager, said.