CRANBERRY TWP — Cranberry Township received roughly $100,000 in PennDOT grants to improve its traffic signal infrastructure.

Of the $15.6 million in Green Light-Go Grants to 50 municipalities announced by the state Wednesday, Cranberry will receive a total of $108,000 in three grants for traffic signal controller assemblies, signal communication network extensions and LED signal replacements.

Kelly Maurer, township director of public works, said the township's goal with the grants is to extend and improve its extant traffic signal infrastructure, which is already some of the most advanced in Pennsylvania.

“It's not for new signals, it's to make our system more efficient,” she said.

Maurer added Cranberry is pleased the Green Light-Go Grants were awarded by the state, as the township applied for them last year before the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on that grant system.

“We're very fortunate with these (grants), after COVID, that we got these grants and are able to move ahead with these projects that have been on hold during this time,” she said.

The highest-value grant, of $56,000, will help the township replace traffic signal controller assemblies at the junctions of Route 19 with Glen Eden Road and at North Boundary and Dutilh roads. Maurer said the assemblies help provide technology to assist in the management of the traffic signals.

“The older signal controllers, the boxes that control, we need to upgrade that with the latest technology,” she said.

A second grant of $28,000 will assist Cranberry with replacing LED traffic signal bulbs. Maurer said all bulbs replaced by the grant funds are already LEDs that have reached their end of life, which is roughly 10 years, and are all along Route 228.

A third grant of $24,000 funds the extension of the township's Traffic Operations Center communications to three intersections — Franklin and Peters roads, Executive and Cranberry Square drives and Rowan Road at Rowan Elementary School. Cranberry's traffic center currently communicates with 41 signals along the main corridors going through the township.

“We do have some outliers that we can't talk to, and this is connecting three of those,” Maurer said. “If there's any failures, like a flashing signal or if a pedestrian signal is stuck, we can see and manage that from our traffic operations center.”

Along with the grant funds, the township is contributing a 20% match toward the use of the funds. Maurer said Cranberry is excited by the grants and added the funds will have a greater financial impact than just the $108,000.

“This helps us maintain the traffic signal system to the highest efficiency, so that we can keep up with the latest technology,” she said. “Really, this is a cost savings to the taxpayers because we can leverage this grant money to make some improvements that we forecasted that we needed to complete.”