From left, Eric Buchan, PennDOT District 10 design services engineer; Mike Mattis, PennDOT Butler County manager; Kevin Pollino, PennDOT District 10 right of way administrator; and Alice Hammond, PennDOT assistant district executive of design, discuss plans for Route 228 at a township supervisors meeting on Monday. William Pitts/Butler Eagle. 8/28/2023.

CLINTON TWP — Supervisors held a special public meeting on Monday, Aug. 28 to address ongoing public issues and concerns with PennDOT’s Route 228 widening project, which has been in the works since 2021.

The affected section of Route 228 stretches from a roundabout at Saxonburg Boulevard in Clinton Township to the intersection of Sarver Road and Ekastown Road in Buffalo Township. Plans are to widen the section from 10-foot wide lanes and 3-foot shoulders to 11-foot lanes and 4-foot shoulders.

The project was announced in February 2021, and construction initially was expected to start this fall. In the intervening time, both sides realized this was easier said than done.

“As time continued and a lot of surveying was being completed, there was just some confusion of what’s going on,” said board chairperson Kathy Allen.

During Monday’s meeting, both residents and the board of supervisors brought up some safety concerns motorists have faced along, or close to, the affected section of Route 228. Chief among them are bends on Brewer Road and near Armstrong Farms, which Allen considered dangerous.

“You have to remember that these roads were created 100-plus years ago, and there were horses and buggies and Model T Fords on them,” Allen said.

State Route 228 is the main east/west road running through Clinton and Buffalo townships. In Clinton Township, it is surrounded by a Corridor Preservation Zone, which serves as a transitional zone between the agricultural and residential districts.

Per the zoning ordinance, the CPZ aims “to prevent the encroachment of future development upon existing rights of way for major transportation corridors within the township.”

PennDOT is in the process of acquiring “right of way”, a.k.a. land rights, along the soon-to-be-widened highway.

Representatives from PennDOT expressed hope that this step would be completed by spring 2024, allowing them to start advertising for bids that October. At this rate, construction would start by spring 2025.

“Clinton Township’s supervisors would just like PennDOT to continue their communications with us and just give us an update, which is what they’ve done,” Allen said.