Published: May 10, 2008 11:02 pm      

Highway ‘moving forward’; four lanes to 'Burgh by '11

EBENSBURG — Despite a statewide PennDOT trend away from new highway construction, work on Route 22 to Monroeville is moving forward. Officials are now promising an east-west four-lane to the Pittsburgh area in three years.

“By the summer of 2011, it will be four lanes to Monroeville,” said Vince Greenland, PennDOT district 9 portfolio manager. “It’s all still a go. We’re moving forward.”

All new construction on Route 22 in Cambria County is completed and funding is in place for the remaining work through PennDOT’s Districts 10 in Indiana County and 12 in Westmoreland County ending in Murrysville, officials said.

“Hopefully – someday in the near future – you’ll be able to drive it without five or six construction projects,” said District 10 spokesman Mark Hillwig.

A four-lane to Pittsburgh won’t come soon enough for Sgt. Jonathan Dollar, a Marine Corps recruiter who travels the congested, slow moving highway a minimum of four times a month.

“It’s rough. It’s congested,” Dollar said of the 35- to 40-mph maximum speed he reaches along much of the route.

A four-lane highway means Dollar will get a little more sleep on those mornings he takes recruits to Pittsburgh.

“Instead of waking up at 5 a.m., when it’s done I’ll be able to get up at 6 or 6:30 a.m.,” he said.

Completion of the long-awaited highway will also ease travel time for Dan Slagle, a Moon Township engineer who works for Lilly Borough and makes the trip a couple times a month.

“What a blessing it will be,” Slagle said. “It will cut about a half hour off the trip.”

A 4.8-mile section – including significant new alignment beginning near Armagh and moving west toward Pittsburgh – is under construction at a cost of $41 million. It will be completed in 2010, Hillwig said.

The greatest amount of work remains on the highway is toward Pittsburgh, where four sections are at varying levels of completion in District 12, said Bill Kovach, assistant executive for construction.

“All of the sections in our district are funded,” Kovach said.

Set for completion in August is a 4.3-mile stretch in western Westmoreland County in the Murrysville, Export and Salem Township area costing $44 million.

And construction of a 4-mile segment from just outside New Alexandria east will be completed in September 2009, costing $36 million.”

Bids awarded for a 1.9-mile stretch starting about five miles east of New Alexandria came in at $20 million.

And bids are to be awarded in late 2008 for 2.3 miles ending at the Indiana County line, costing $30 million to $35 million.

“The Route 22 section in our area has been nine or 10 years in the making,” he said.

When completed, Route 22 will provide motorists with a faster, safer route from outside Duncansville, Blair County, where it splits off Interstate 99 through to Pittsburgh.

While the improvements will create a four-lane highway, it will not be limited access – meaning motorists will have to deal with the stop and go of a number of signal lights.

The signal lights and intersections are already time consuming on the trip to Pittsburgh said Josh Langham of Johnstown, a trucker taking a load of steel wire to Detroit.

“You get out around Murrysville and it’s awful. We’re right back where we started from,” he said.

The time it has taken to turn the major east-west highway into a four lane is unbelievable, said Chuck Serenko of Cambria Township.

“We can’t wait for it to be done,” he said, adding that 22 in eastern Cambria County was finished so long ago it’s now being resurfaced.

Three years ago, PennDOT began resurfacing the four-lane through parts of Blair and Cambria counties.

Crews are currently working on resurfacing a three miles of 22 in Munster and Cambria townships.

Resurfacing is completed through Gallitzin and Cresson townships with two more phases planned in the Ebensburg area and points west in 2009 and 2010.