Intersection near school to receive traffic updates

The intersection of Cedar Boulevard and Morgan Drive/ Greenhurst Drive will be modified to help ease traffic backups that occur in the area during morning drop-off and afternoon school dismissal.

Commissioners at a May 26 meeting voted unanimously to modify the intersection and reconfigure the lanes. The cost for the changes will be about $10,000.

Kyle Brown, of Gateway Engineers, said a traffic study at the intersection concluded that the best option would be to “quantify the lane configuration to an exclusive left turn lane and a shared through right turn lane as opposed to the shared through and left lane that is there currently.”

Additionally, an advanced left turn phase for the Morgan Drive approach will be added, which will allow cars on Morgan Drive to cross the intersection without impeding traffic from Greenhust Drive and would also prohibit pedestrians from crossing Cedar Boulevard.

The phased intersection would provide pedestrians an opportunity to cross Cedar Boulevard as motorists making that left turn would have to yield.

Mr. Brown said several intersections in the municipality are already configured this way, citing the intersection of Bower Hill Road and Cochran Road and the intersection of Cedar Boulevard and Cochran Road as examples.

Mt. Lebanon manger Keith McGill said the intersection changes, which will involve repainting road lines, reconfiguring the signal and installing signs, should be finished before the start of the 2020-21 school year.