Bob Fryer, Advocate for Bridgeville

Bridgeville Traffic Congestion

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A major issue that Bridgeville officials need to solve is the 50-year-old traffic congestion problem that was created when the Bridgeville Exit on I-79 was opened 400 yards from Washington Pike (Avenue). This eventually caused the collapse of the Bridgeville business district.

How City Officials Can


Resolve the Traffic Issues

Project 1

Shady Avenue must also be extended 220 yards to Hickman Street to create 2 parallel, 1 way, 3 lane wide, main streets for only 2 city blocks, using parallel Washington Avenue, as recommended as the same solution by 6 different city planning and traffic engineering firms to Bridgeville officials between 1969 and 2008, and today.

Eliminating the economically ruinous Washington Avenue traffic congestion problem by creating 2 parallel, 3 lane wide, 1 way streets, that are only 2 city blocks long, by extending Shady Avenue 220 yards, which would DOUBLE the number of consumer-motorists driving past all of the entrances of all the businesses on Washington Avenue, and therefore almost DOUBLE their gross incomes !

Motorists driving on 1-way Washington Avenue and 1-way Shady Avenue could see other, thereby creating a sense of understanding of the road system and the ease of circulating thru the business district.

Project 2

Completing the elimination of the economically destructive Bridgeville 2-lane wide "bottleneck" also requires two 12-foot lanes be added to the EAST side of Washington Avenue from the Bower Hill Road intersection (under a 24 foot extension of the overhead railroad bridge) to the Prestley Road intersection. Decades ago, when the former owners of the Great Southern Shopping Center learned that THIS was the logical solution Penn DOT was planning to build, the owners flipped out stating.... they did not want their customers coming from the Bridgeville I-79 Exit, going thru another business district first before they arrived at their shopping center.

So, Penn DOT simply built the Kirwan Heights I-79 Exit at 5 times the cost in that it required a 2- lane wide bridge OVER I-79's 6 lanes, plus 4 long exit and entrance approach ramps. The only thing Bridgeville officials had to do to prevent the collapse of their own tax revenue producing business district that has resulted in decades of Bridgeville residents paying the area's highest percentage of their yearly incomes in taxes to their community, was to oppose the Kirwan Heights I-79 Exit.

Penn DOT policy prohibits new roads or road modifications from negatively affecting already existing business districts when alternate "much cheaper" solutions are available.

Project 3

Extending (NOT removing and replacing) the railroad bridge OVER Washington Avenue to allow the necessary 2-lane widening of this section of Washington Avenue at 1/3 the cost.

Project 4

Splitting (separating) the present inadequate Bower Hill 2 lane traffic "flow" from the McLaughlin Run Road intersection to and from Washington Avenue, by making it 4 lanes by making Baldwin Street a 2 lane, 1 way East bound street, and Bower Hill Road a parallel 2 lane, one way West bound street by building a gradual 30 degree declining ramp from the Bower Hill Road/Railroad Street intersection down TO Baldwin Street, only 8 feet lower. (Notice the steepness of the 20 foot high slope of West bound Station Street as it intersects with Washington Avenue, (the center of Bridgeville's central business district).

Also notice the steepness of Washington Avenue approaching Station Street from both the North and the South. This aspect of the Central business district (+ parking lots too far from the store entrances) has always discouraged pedestrian shopper/customers, IN ADDITION TO THE OUTRAGEOUS TRAFFIC CONGESTION over the last 50 years.

Project 5

Adding 1 lane to Bower Hill Road from the Railroad Street intersection to Washington Avenue making it 4 lanes wide (+ a traffic light), that will certainly lead to the economic redevelopment of the, more level, larger, more pedestrian shopper friendly Baldwin Street business district. That's why Bridgeville's 1st business district was located on Baldwin Street, because it was 3 acres of flat land.

Project 6

Study the drawing of the possible 250 additional, parking space lot sites that could be built in Bridgeville's central business district if Shady Avenue becomes the one way, 3 lane wide parallel road to Washington Avenue, for which Bridgeville would be compensated by federal, state and county funding agencies, for allowing the removal of the parking on Station Street, Shady Avenue and Baldwin Street to increase the traffic flow for the Region's transient and resident motorists who drive to and from Interstate Highway #79, daily thru Bridgeville.

For the 1st time passing consumer-motorists would be able to SEE vacant parking spaces in Bridgeville’s Business district. The only thing Bridgeville officials had to do to prevent the collapse of their own tax revenue producing business district that has resulted in decades of Bridgeville residents paying the area's highest percentage of their yearly incomes in taxes to town, was to oppose the Kirwan Heights I-79 Exit.

Penn DOT policy prohibits new roads or road modifications from negatively affecting already existing business districts when alternate solutions are available.

The public record, newspaper articles, accounting records and letters from a range of federal, state and county agencies definitely show that the desperately needed road improvements on Washington Pike were never constructed thru Bridgeville, South Fayette and Collier over a period of 50 years by Penn DOT, allowing it to remain mired in traffic congestion, so that the Washington Pike business districts could not become a formidable competitor to the Route #19 business districts in Upper St. Clair and Mount Lebanon only 4 miles away. (This violates some Penn DOT policy publications I've read stating that new highway construction or modifications of roads should not negatively affect already established business districts.)

The "full court press" concerning Penn DOT's unethical policy of making consumer-motorist access to and from Washington Pike stressfully difficult, was established right after Interstate Highway #79 was built thru South Fayette, Bridgeville and Collier, and 30,000 consumer-motorists a day switched from using Route #19 to using I-79 to get to and from Pittsburgh. The South Hills Village Mall was later sold.

(The eventual excessive traffic congestion caused the collapse of the Bridgeville business district, the suppression of the expansion of the adjacent South Fayette business district, and excessive taxes for the residents in both communities, for 5 decades.)

Project 7

The 25-foot extension of the railroad bridge over Washington Avenue so that the 2 addition lanes can be built under it, which is necessary to complete the Comprehensive 4-community traffic elimination road plan. Other factors about the Traffic Congestion problem to consider, include:

  • The inside left lane of both of the 3-lane wide, 1 way, 2 block long streets would be only for left turning vehicles, thereby never obstructing the movement of the 2 one way thru lanes, thereby rapidly attracting more consumer-motorists. The speed of the steadily moving vehicles could be easily set any ANY speed by coordinating the 5 traffic lights, to the clear advantage of pedestrian shoppers and clients, who must be able to cross the streets safely because there are businesses obviously on both sides of the street. On a couple of two 1-way parallel streets, crossing pedestrians ONLY HAVE TO GLANCE ONE WAY. It's safer.
  • The distance between North/South Washington Avenue and parallel North/South Shady Avenue is ONLY 1/2 of the typical city block, which is a notable convenience for consumer-motorists, who would want to loop back around the short blocks to take a 2nd look for a parking space, for example.
  • Bridgeville's central business district would have TWO such oval shaped, "drive around the block" routes for customers by using the East/West streets of Hickman Street, Station Street and Murray Avenue. Neither the Mt. Lebanon business district, the Canonsburg business district or the Carnegie business district have such convenient loop around routes for motorists.
  • Bridgeville's central business district could certainly be easily expanded from Washington Avenue to the WEST, because the Shady Avenue/Chess Street & Church Street areas are relatively FLAT, unlike the Mt. Lebanon and Canonsburg business districts in which their main streets are located on the crest of hills, with no useful parallel streets, requiring a complicated drive for consumer-motorists and a steep, difficult, long walk from parking spaces.
  • Bridgeville's renovated business districts will NOT have to be as LARGE as the Great Southern Shopping Center or the Chartiers Valley Shopping Center next to Bridgeville, to produce 3 times the tax revenue income needed for its residents. It only has to be well planned, with the correct choice of retail businesses. Urge your Bridgeville officials to fix the traffic congestion problem in Bridgeville so we can save our business district.