Butler Township has been awarded a $400,000 state grant to upgrade 17 traffic signal controllers, some of which are 20 to 40 years old.

It’s part of $31 million in grants from the state Department of Transportation’s “Green Light-Go” program to 70 municipalities across the state, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Thursday.

The grants are provided as reimbursements to improve the efficiency and operation of existing traffic signals, Wolf said.

Edward Kirkwood, township manager, who submitted the grant application last year, said the reimbursement will cover 80 percent of the cost and the township will be responsible for the remaining 20 percent.

“The beauty of this particular grant is they pay 80 cents on the dollar and we pay only 20 cents on the dollar. In my book it’s pretty good,” Kirkwood said.

The next step is for the township commissioners and PennDOT to sign the grant contract, he said.

PennDOT will then authorize the township to prepare engineering specifications and a list of components that will be replaced, and then advertise for bids.

The commissioners should be able to award a contract in October or November and the work would take place next summer. Kirkwood estimated the work would take two months to complete.

The controller is the most important and expensive part of a traffic signal, said Kirkwood, who will highlight the project at the commissioners’ meeting Monday.

The project includes replacing signal controllers and the controller cabinets for four signals on the Route 68 corridor from Meridian Road to the Route 356 intersection. Those controllers are 20 to 40 years old, Kirkwood said.

“Some of them have exceeded their normal useful life, so we’re on borrowed time,” he said.

The other controllers being replaced are at the four-way intersection of Saxonburg Boulevard, Center Avenue, Freeport Road and Morton Avenue, the intersection of Hansen Avenue at Route 8 at the Picklegate Bridge and North Main Street at the Filbert Street, Delwood Road and Beech Street intersections. A left turn lane will be added at the Filbert Street intersection.

“With the completion of this project we’re going move from the old mechanical type of controller to state of the art technology. The oldest light that we’re going to have in service is going to about five years of age,” Kirkwood said.

Some traffic signals in the Route 356 corridor between Moraine Pointe Drive and Campus Lane are being upgraded now with funding from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, he said.

Other signals have been upgraded as a result of development.

The signal at the Hindman Road-Route 356 intersection was upgraded when Dick’s Sporting Goods opened; the signal on East Jefferson Street at the Butler Memorial Hospital entrance was upgraded during the hospital expansion project; and PennDOT upgraded the signal and reconfigured the turning lanes at the Route 8-Litman road intersection, Kirkwood said.