Oct 10, 2018 3 min read

Twenty-five years ago, the term “brick and mortar stores” would have meant only businesses that sold bricks and mortar, because no one was yet shopping online.

And did anyone back then imagine we’d be using global positioning systems or Google maps to find our way around?

Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission isn’t asking people to predict the future, but they are seeking input from people who are thinking about it.

The first of 10 workshops and brainstorming sessions in each county that is a member of the regional planning organization convened Tuesday at Courthouse Square in Washington.

Demographics, the economy, the environment, funding and technology will impact transportation in their own ways during the next 25 years.

Andy Waple, transportation planning director for Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, said he was surprised, in light of Pittsburgh’s prominence in the self-driving car industry, that autonomous vehicles didn’t have a bigger impact on the vision of transportation 25 years from now when a panel of experts got together last month in Pittsburgh.

Waple, offering a glimpse of three years hence, said the changes those who drive locally will be seeing by 2021 are:

• Third lanes on Interstate 79 northbound and southbound to the Southern Beltway.
• Replacing or eliminating traffic signals at 16 intersections on Route 88 in Charleroi.
• Intersection improvements on Route 519 at Route 980 and Interstate 79 in North Strabane Township in the vicinity of Canonsburg Hospital.
• And replacing three bridges in poor condition. Those identified were Maple Drive over Interstate 70 at Speers; Bavington Road over Route 22; and a ramp over Route 40 from the Lane-Bane Bridge in West Brownsville.

At an open house, Jim Grazulis of Carnegie, who formerly lived in Chartiers Township, looked at the map and said, “I really just came here to observe.” One of his observations was “the Southern Beltway was going to be way west of where it is now.”

Jessica Miller of Fredericktown, system coordinator of the Washington County Library System, came to Courthouse Square to “find out what the plans are for the future of our region, population projections, what their thoughts were on what type of transportation was needed, and how libraries can play a greater role in making all of this run smoother.”

Expanding internet broadband access to rural areas plays into this mix, Waple noted.

Some of the comments left on a message board dealt with pedestrian safety and extending hours for public transit. One person wanted to see an increase in the speed limit on I-79, while another wrote that increasing speed limits would endanger wildlife. Another message was “owners of former malls should restore a significant part of their property” so that becomes forest, grassland or wetland.

Washington County Commission Chairman Larry Maggi, who is also chairman of Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission board, said of the most urgent transportation need in the county, “We’ve got two major highways coming through Washington County, which is a big part of our commerce and our success.

“We need to make sure these highways are maintained. We need to widen these highways. We’re a thoroughfare east to west and north to south. We’re going to be seeing construction on 70 from now to eternity because there’s an attempt to make that six lanes up to the Turnpike.”

The Mon-Fayette Expressway runs through eastern Washington County to its terminus at Jefferson Hills, Allegheny County. Maggi is a long-time proponent of extending the expressway.