Cranberry Township recently received a $350,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to upgrade and modernize a traffic signal at the Route 19 and Short Street intersection.

“It’s one of the oldest traffic signals that haven’t been upgraded or replaced in the township,” township manager Dan Santoro said. “We’ve been looking at that signal knowing that we needed to not only replace the physical infrastructure — the mast arms, the poles that hold it up — but also the technology to bring it up to current standards.”

Many of the township’s traffic signals along the Route 19 corridor have already been upgraded. This PennDOT grant will help synchronize the Short Street signal with the rest of the route.

“We’ll have enhanced detection out there — the way you detect the vehicles at intersections is different now than when that signal was built in the ’90s,” Santoro said. “It will count the vehicles and adjust the traffic better, and it will certainly enhance the traffic flow in those areas.”

The project is in the design and review phase with the township’s engineer, but it will take some time before work begins. The project is still waiting on a PennDOT permit.

“The PennDOT signal process is a long process,” Santoro said. “We would anticipate doing that work in late 2023 — probably more likely in 2024 as a capital improvement.”

According to Santoro, the cost of a signal replacement is approximately one million dollars. The addition of the PennDOT grant makes a big difference.

“The grant will help us complete the project,” Santoro said.

The PennDOT grant is part of the Automated Red-Light Enforcement program, which uses the fines from red-light violations at 36 intersections in Philadelphia to fund traffic safety projects.

“We’re very appreciative of receiving the grant and the ability to upgrade that signal and bring it up to the current technology and current standards,” Santoro said. “It will certainly help us to continue to manage the traffic corridors with the latest and greatest software and technology that’s available.”