EVANS CITY — Borough council members will attempt to have three traffic signals properly timed to improve traffic flow through town during rush hours.

Council President Lee Dyer said Monday that state Department of Transportation traffic experts will study the two traffic lights on Main Street plus another at the intersection of Routes 68 and 528, along with other factors that affect traffic, to decide how to better move motorists through the borough in the morning and evening.

Dyer said the PennDOT Green Light-Go program is paying for the project.

Evans City officials are partnering with the Jackson Township supervisors for the project because the signal at Route 528 is in the township.

Dyer said one light on Main Street is on a one-minute cycle, while the other is timed at 1.5 minutes. He is not sure what timing cycle the Jackson Township signal is set to.

“If they are coordinated, the traffic flow should improve through town,” he said. “We want to put them together in such a sequence that they work together.”

Dyer said Evans City’s traffic problem is complicated by the 15 mile-per-hour school zone at the elementary/middle school and sporadic train traffic on the tracks along the Connoquenessing Creek.

“We have developed a miserable traffic congestion problem around the rush hours,” Dyer said.

Many motorists use Route 68 through Evans City as a route between Butler and the Cranberry Township area or as easily access Interstate 79 South via Route 528.

Dyer also said development east of the borough has increased the traffic through downtown, and council wants to address it.

He expects PennDOT traffic officials to begin studying the borough’s traffic problems in May or June. They then will provide a report on their findings to the borough council, and make recommendations on possible solutions, Dyer said.

“(The signals) should then be adjusted very quickly,” Dyer said.

He said while sitting through lights in Evans City for 15 minutes is understandably frustrating, the situation does not compare to the problems in big cities.

“Believe me, our traffic doesn’t come close to sitting on the Beltway (in Washington, D.C.) for two-and-a-half hours,” Dyer said.