Drivers fed up with traffic congestion on Route 228 in the Cranberry and Mars area will get a look soon at 15 possible solutions. People will get a chance to review the proposals during a public meeting from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 8 at Mars Area Middle School, 1775 Three Degree Road in Adams Township. The proposals come from the Community Advisory Committee for the Route 228 Improvement Project, which has met several times in the past year to discuss the future of the mostly two-lane roadway between routes 8 and 19. Congestion along the road has increased as communities grow in southern Butler County. During the school year, congestion gets especially bad near the district campus along Route 228. An average of 21,000 vehicles use the four-lane section of Route 228 in Cranberry Township each day, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. From the Cranberry Township border to the east, about 18,000 vehicles use the roadway daily. In addition, stoplights at Warrendale and Mars-Evans City roads tie up traffic on the two-lane road. Officials said many of the intersections along Route 228 have a PennDOT grade of “F,” which means the amount of traffic approaching the intersection exceeds the amount that can travel through the intersection in one green light. During peak times, bumper-to-bumper traffic extends from Cranberry Township to Middlesex Township. Preliminary studies indicate it is only going to get worse. PennDOT spokesman Jim Struzzi said Monday that the group devised 15 alternatives for the road, but he would not elaborate on them. The Community Advisory Committee includes representatives of local businesses, residents and municipal officials from Adams, Cranberry and Middlesex townships and the boroughs of Mars and Seven Fields. It includes emergency service providers and representatives of transportation organizations, schools and environmental groups. “They’ve been meeting with us through the past year, and we’ve asked them to sit down with a map of the area and come up with some preliminary options,” Struzzi said. “They’re just lines on paper that we’re going to look at further. We’re going to present those, which include some online improvements — both north and south — and new roadways. There will be some formal presentations and a matrix that shows the various impacts of each alternative.” Struzzi said the meeting, sponsored by PennDOT and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, is part of the process to weed out options that are too costly or impractical. This level of public input in a road planning process is relatively new, he said. “We’ve used community advisory committees for the 119 South widening project in Indiana, Pa. They’ve proven successful. They get the community involved, and it’s not just us making decisions.” Struzzi said it is important to find alternatives to the road because daily use could reach 60,000 vehicles on the westernmost portion of Route 228 by 2030. The planning process is about a third of the way completed and construction is slated to begin in 2008. Struzzi said it is too early to estimate a cost.

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