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Cranberry Twp. Road Monitoring Goes High-Tech

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP (KDKA) - Cranberry Township is getting a high-tech look at the recent snow.

As part of the state funding that lured Westinghouse into Butler County, the township received over $600,000 dollars to install a state-of-the-art traffic control system.

Not everyone can rely on their own plow.

With 100,000 cars passing through the intersection of Routes 19 and 228, the task of clearing out snow falls upon Cranberry's Public Works Department.

"Temperatures stayed cold this morning, but we were able to dodge the accumulations some places to the north got," Cranberry Township Public Works Director Jason Dailey said.

But for the first time, Dailey and his crews kept an eye on the morning snow from a state-of-the-art traffic control center.

"We're able to see things less from the field. We're able to visually see the problems occurring at an intersection now," Dailey said.

Cameras mounted at key intersections are fed in real time. Thanks to sensors, at any time, crews will know which side of the road has the green, where cars are stopped and how much time is left in that light cycle.

If you've ever been in Cranberry, you know the intersection of Routes 19 and 228 is one of the busiest intersections with big backups on the weekends.

The goal of this new traffic control center is to make sure those backups are alleviated, and when old man winter rolls around, those crews are ready to roll.

"We had four operators last night, and we scheduled for a full crew of operators out at [4 a.m.] knowing conditions were going to be a bit worse than yesterday," Dailey said.

With one wintry blast down and more on the way, it's all about being proactive.

"We [have to] move traffic. If you have a red light, someone has a green light, and our goal is to move traffic in the most efficient manner, and this is going to help do that," Dailey said.

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