Growth snarls Butler County thoroughfare
22.05.12
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When Mars Lanes opened in 1959, a two-lane road led all the way to Cranberry, where it hit a blinking traffic light at Route 19.
Now that monstrous intersection of routes 19 and 228 handles as many as 100,000 vehicles a day as increased population in southern Butler County brings more development along the east-west corridor. Rush-hour gridlock often reigns along Route 228's four lanes of highway and at the traffic signals and turning lanes that accompany the new commercial centers between Cranberry and Adams.
"We'd like to see everything stay the same, but we understand that it can't," said Ruth Geller, who with her husband Gary has owned the bowling alley at the road's intersection with Mars-Valencia Road for 10 years.
"The road is awful, and whoever allowed all those businesses along Route 228, they should have their heads examined. From our intersection on, it just keeps piling up," she said.
Officials in the communities along Route 228 say they are trying to ease congestion without killing the commercial development that brings good fortune to the area, and a new traffic study shows some success. But challenges remain.
Source: Tarentum Valley News Dispatch