Officials break ground on Butler Township road realignment project
BUTLER TWP — The Whitestown Road realignment project that county and state officials broke ground on Friday morning, March 22, will be a headache throughout its construction, but the work is meant to cut down on crashes in the area.
Butler Township manager Tom Knights said there are regularly reports of crashes near the six-road junction. Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche echoed his sentiment, adding trucks currently have to cross five lanes of traffic without a stop light to turn left onto the Picklegate Bridge from Armco Drive.
“I think it’s going to have a tremendous impact,” Osche said. “This is a difficult curve to navigate with trucks coming in and out.”
Contractors will begin work on the $3.39 million road construction project in April, and on Friday, some of the officials who helped get funding for the project broke ground in a ceremony. Knights said the township got $1.4 million from the Commonwealth Financing Authority with the help of the county commissioners, state Rep. Marci Mustello, R-11th, and state Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st.
Osche, Mustello and a representative from Hutchinson’s office were at the groundbreaking Friday, along with Butler Township commissioners Sam Zurzolo and Ed Natali and Butler County Chamber of Commerce president Jordan Grady.
Osche, who commended the collaboration that got the project off the ground, said Butler Township also took advantage of a relationship the county has with Delta Development Group.
“The county commissioners years back contracted with Delta Development to help us gain access to help us gain access to lots of funding for transportation and infrastructure projects,” Osche said. “We gave each municipality an opportunity to work with Delta on a specific project. So this was the one that we chose for Butler Township in order to try drive this project forward and be able to bring the money back.”
Butler Township hosted a meeting March 20, where Knights informed residents of the Lyndora area how the construction for the project will unfold over the coming months.
Knights said the stretch of Armco Drive under the Picklegate Bridge to Hansen Avenue will be closed April 1 for work to begin. Other roads on that side of the project will be minimally affected for now, according to Knights.
“If you are coming from the south and you’re just going up Hansen Avenue, you’ll see absolutely no difference,” Knights said. “The only time there will be any traffic interruption coming off the bridge is very end of October, when we have to pave about 80 feet on either side of the intersection.”
The ground where the officials broke ground Friday was closer to the recreation complex Butler Township is building near Allegheny Health Network in the Pullman Center Business Park. Part of the road project will add another intersection in Hollywood Drive that will lead directly to Hansen Avenue.
Osche said despite the coming construction pains, the development of the area will be an asset to Butler County.
“The park itself and the fields, I think that’s really where I think you’re going to see an incredible uptick,” Osche said. “I think you’re going to see some really neat things start to happen as these things build out.”
