Middlesex roadwork project starts Monday
Preliminary work on the Route 228 widening and straightening project in Middlesex Township will begin Monday.
The $43.8 million project will involve widening the two-lane highway to four lanes, two jug handles and adding a traffic light, the straightening of Balls Bend and another sweeping curve and replacement of a wetland.
The area of the two-part Gateway 228 project in Middlesex Township, known as the Balls Bend project, is from Route 8 west to Officer Ed Brooks Drive.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on Thursday stated that beginning Monday, crews will be completing a survey in the area and installing fences to delineate wetlands.No traffic restrictions are expected during this preliminary phase of work, but PennDOT is asking motorists to exercise caution in areas where employees or contractors are working.Eric Buchan, senior design project manager at PennDOT District 10, said Gateway 228 has been moved from the design to construction phase.The Balls Bend project will continue until 2025, as extensive work and relocating of the highway is involved, he said.Of the $30 million construction cost, $11.1 million will be paid from the federal Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, or BUILD, grants received by Butler County.Buchan said the remainder will come from other federal and state funds.Five residences and one business were displaced to make way for the project, he said.The construction project will begin with extensive utility relocation, Buchan said, before crews begin to build new sections of road that will serve to straighten out the two main curves in the road.The wetlands surrounding one of those curves, known as Balls Bend, will be replaced in a PennDOT right-of-way secured for the project.“We will build a wetland and stream mitigation adjacent to the new roadway,” Buchan said.He said that while traffic may be reduced to one lane or shifted in various ways during construction, Route 228 will not be closed.“There will be no detouring of Route 228,” Buchan said.He said the most substantial change to the current highway will be the shifting of the road to the north at the bend at Park and Harbison roads, and the shifting to the south at Balls Bend to straighten the busy highway.Two jug handles that will allow traffic to access properties on the opposite side of the road will be included in the project, Buchan said.One will be built at the intersection with Old Route 8 and another at the intersection of Park and Harbison roads.The jug handles are necessary because turning into properties across oncoming traffic will not be allowed along the stretch of Route 228, Buchan said.A traffic signal also will be added at Park and Harbison roads, he said.Route 228 will be widened in the project area to allow more traffic to traverse the highway, Buchan said.Mark Gordon, the county's chief of economic development and planning, said straightening and widening the eastern section of Route 228 will greatly improve safety.He said Balls Bend is a difficult maneuver for the many tractor-trailer trucks that traverse the highway, and at least one fatality has been recorded among the accidents there in the past few years.“And it's a congestion nightmare,” Gordon said.He added that the several schools along Route 228 from Route 8 to Route 19 mean heavy use by school buses, and many senior citizens from area nursing homes are also transported on the highway.“It is a corridor that truly reflects the signature of the county,” Gordon said.The Gateway 228 project, Gordon said, will better facilitate the commerce that occurs on the highway as well.He said the presence of routes 228 and 19 and interstates 79 and 76 in Cranberry Township creates a far-reaching transportation model.“In a normal one-day drive, you have access to approximately 45% to 48% of the U.S. population,” Gordon said.In addition, he said $28 billion in products are manufactured and transported in that area.Gordon said while motorists will see some delays on Route 228 while the Balls Bend project proceeds, the end result will be worth it.“For folks who live, work and commute along Route 228, I think there are tremendous benefits,” he said.Independence Excavating of Independence, Ohio, is the Balls Bend project's contractor.The second phase of the Gateway 228 project will improve Freedom Road in Cranberry Township from Haine School Road to the Beaver County line.More information and an aerial map of the Balls Bend project is available at butlercountypa.org by searching “Balls Bend.”
