Oakmont residents will be seeing red, soon -- and green and yellow.
Oakmont Council expects the long-awaited traffic lights, funded by Walgreens, to be installed before the end of December.
Lights will be erected on either side of the railroad tracks at the Hulton Road intersections of Allegheny Avenue and Allegheny River Boulevard.
Construction is just beginning, with the foundations for poles being installed. The actual structure will be built afterward, followed by mounting the lights.
The most recent concern was making sure the signal will have a battery back up, said Tom Bland, council vice president.
Roads probably will not be shut down during construction, he said, though there might be flaggers to direct drivers around portions of the street.
Installing traffic signals was part of Walgreens' agreement with the borough. The project was originally slated to be finished before the U.S. Open in June.
Representatives from The Paradise Group, which has handled Walgreens development, said the delay was due to mitigation with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Allegheny Railroad Association.
Walgreens was also waiting on custom-ordered posts, specially designed to maintain Oakmont's signature look.
The lights will use a hybrid system to detect vehicles. Allegheny Avenue and Allegheny River Boulevard will use sensors underneath the road, while Hulton Road will be equipped with an overhead radar, which can detect cars from even farther away.
"We anticipate better control of traffic flow," Bland said, though there will be an experimental period while officials study how the signal synchronizes with the one across the bridge at Freeport Road.
Residents have expressed concern with children crossing Hulton Road, and there will be a pedestrian crossing at the signals, Bland said.
In other Oakmont news:
⢠Council is discussing options for an interim borough manager after the resignation of Roger Dunlap in September.
His last day was Friday, Oct. 5, after which he moved to a new job as assistant borough manager in State College.
Oakmont council members want to wait until the newly-elected council members are sworn in this January before making a permanent hire, said Bill Benusa, council president.
Until then, the borough might hire a part-time employee to handle some business aspects, he said.
⢠Residents will see ongoing construction to utility poles in the borough throughout the winter.
Duquesne Light is working on poles to convert use from the old Oakmont substation to the new California Avenue substation.
The company is also working with Verizon, which owns many of the utility poles that are being replaced.
The entire project is expected to be finished in the spring of 2008, Bland said.
"Duquesne Light would like me to mention to everyone that they apologize for the inconvenience and disruption that this work may have caused," he said.
The goal, Duquesne representatives said, is to achieve long-term reliability.
Holly Usher is a staff writer with the Advance Leader in Oakmont.
