Solving Route 30

Anyone who sits in traffic along segments of Westmoreland County's share of Route 30 can appreciate efforts to draft a master plan that will address congestion and future development along the busy thoroughfare.

They'll appreciate it even more if the plan leads somewhere other than the nearest municipal bookshelf.

Credit the Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County for shepherding the plan and scheduling public sessions. Moving from a "blueprint" to an action plan, however, is going to take a concerted effort by local planners, municipal officials and PennDOT.

Without a dedicated, coordinated approach to future development and increasing traffic, today's bottlenecks along the county's 40-mile stretch of Route 30 will grow into tomorrow's gridlock.

As it is now, midafternoon weekday traffic from Greensburg to Jeannette is a sea of brake lights along some segments. And even with three lanes in each direction, traffic frequently bogs down in Hempfield to and from Westmoreland Mall.

Yet whenever new development goes in -- in recent years at Wildcat Commons in Unity Township and now at an idled Wal-Mart Supercenter construction site in North Huntingdon -- the Route 30 impact typically is treated as an afterthought.

That must change.

What's needed now is a plan for coordinated action -- not a place-holder for the next master plan.