Developers promise the millions of dollars in improvements to Route 910 and Route 28 that began this spring not only will make it easier to get to two new shopping malls, but also make a deadly stretch of road safer. This year, about $1 million in new traffic lights and turning lanes along Route 910 will be added as part of the development of the Pittsburgh Mills mall, slated to open in July in Frazer. Next year, $25 million more in new ramps, lights and road widening will begin in conjunction with the building of the $124 million Deer Creek Crossing shopping complex, which will be bisected by Route 910. A contentious political battle raged for five years over a tax-diversion plan to pay for those road improvements. Residents pushing for the tax-increment financing deal listed among its benefits the improvements to Route 910, which they described as deadly. Since 1999, PennDOT accident records show more than 100 crashes happened along Route 910 near the Deer Creek Crossing site, including one fatal accident in 2003. During the same time period, PennDOT records show no one was killed at three other busy Valley intersections. Thirteen crashes each were reported at the intersections of Route 380 and Route 780 in Upper Burrell and at Route 56 and Craigdell Road in New Kensington. At Route 356 and Bear Creek Road in Buffalo Township, where commercial development has blossomed in the past five years, only three crashes happened, PennDOT records show. Harmar Supervisor Bob Seibert, who supported the Deer Creek development along with the TIF that supports it, said he believed Texas-based developer Woodmont’s plans for improving the road will make it safer. “It’s going to make it safer. It’s going to make the traffic flow better,” he said. Woodmont is preparing final plans for the improvements along Route 910 that will be done simultaneously with construction of the retail development next year. The plan includes new entrance and exit ramps at Route 28, new traffic signals, and straightening and widening of the road. Where Route 910 will bisect the development, Woodmont plans to reroute and widen the road, eliminating a steep, drastic curve as the road winds toward Rich Hill and Locust Hill roads. Also, Woodmont plans to add turning lanes at the Route 910-Saxonburg Road intersection. The work will be paid for with about $25 million from a tax-increment financing deal approved earlier this year. The deal will divert 80 percent of new property taxes over the next 20 years. One Allegheny County councilman, Republican Doug Price of Carnegie, said during the TIF debate that he questioned the wisdom of granting a TIF to another project so near the Mills mall, which has a similar tax-increment financing plan. The need to improve Route 910 with TIF proceeds, he said, swayed him to vote for the tax deal. Foes of the tax-increment financing — including several environmental groups — said Deer Creek Crossing supporters were exaggerating the danger of Route 910 to bolster their argument for taxpayer-financed improvements that mostly would benefit retailers. They also questioned whether adding shopper traffic to Route 910 would improve its safety, regardless of any upgrades. Perhaps Deer Creek’s staunchest proponent, County Councilwoman Eileen Watt, R-Cheswick, told county council last year that the road desperately needed improvement. She called Route 910 one of the most dangerous roads in Pennsylvania and told council the road had accident rates 10 times the state average as she urged them to vote for the TIF. Last month, however, Watt said she didn’t believe improving Route 910 was a key issue in the TIF debate. “I think there were multiple reasons, and that wasn’t the major one,” Watt said. “The main reason wasn’t Route 910, the main reason was tax relief.” She said she didn’t want to comment on whether the road would be safer after Deer Creek Crossing-related work. “When you want to talk about tax relief, give me a call,” Watt said. Fortunately and unfortunately for Harmar, burgeoning development in the lower Valley has created traffic problems that can’t be solved by the Route 910 improvements spawned by Deer Creek Crossing and the Mills. “Harmar is becoming a crossroads for this region,” Seibert said. To solve regional traffic problems will require half a dozen major projects, including replacing the Hulton Bridge to Oakmont and creating direct access to Route 28 from the Pennsylvania Turnpike, he said. “Traffic here’s going to be a problem no matter what.”

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