The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission has awarded nearly $9 million in grants that will serve as the final piece of funding for 16 transportation projects worth more than $110 million across the 10-county region.

Some of the money is for planning or feasibility studies, but the bulk of it will allow projects to begin construction, the commission said.

The grants were awarded in two categories: $5.8 million for 10 projects under the Livability through Smart Transportation Program, and $3.186 million for six projects through the Transportation Alternatives Program. The Livability program is designed to link transportation projects with other development work while the Alternatives program encourages bike and pedestrian lanes, trail expansion, and access to public transit.

The most expensive project is 12 miles of improvements to Route 981 in Westmoreland County at a cost of $51 million, including a $750,000 Livability grant. Known as the Laurel Valley Transportation Improvement Project, it will upgrade Route 981 from Route 819 in Mount Pleasant Township to Route 30 in Unity.

The first section of work will be from the Route 819 interchange to Norvelt. The grant will be used to widen shoulders to allow bike and pedestrian travel and improve connections with the regional trail system.

In Beaver County, a $14.5 million Pennsylvania Department of Transportation project on Brodhead Road in Aliquippa will rehabilitate the surface and shoulders, install a new traffic signal at the intersection with Center Grange Road, and consider a left-turn lane between Pleasant Drive and the Northern Limit. The project received a $750,000 Livability grant.

A $492,000 Alternatives grant will help PennDOT complete a $12.6 million project to revamp the Jefferson Avenue interchange with Interstate 70 in Washington. The project will include new signals, sidewalk restoration and improving stormwater improvements.

Read the full story on Post-Gazette.com

Roads and bridges in Southwestern Pennsylvania will see a $300 million boost in funding because of the infrastructure law enacted in 2021.

The extra money is included in a regional plan for $1.5 billion in transportation projects that is set to be approved June 27 by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

The commission’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) covers 2023 through 2026 and includes increases in funding for bridges, highway safety improvements and bike-and-pedestrian infrastructure compared to the previous program.

The SPC is responsible for allocating state and federal funds to local transportation infrastructure projects across 10 Southwestern Pennsylvania counties that surround Pittsburgh.

Among the $300 million increase in funding for roads and bridges under the commission’s jurisdiction, $100 million is earmarked just for bridges.

At a June 1 public meeting, SPC staff explained that the increase in funding for Pittsburgh-area transportation infrastructure is thanks to the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law passed by Congress in 2021.

“With passage of the bipartisan law, the highway and bridge funding is back up to higher levels,” said SPC director of transportation planning Domenic D’Andrea.

Roads and bridges are the biggest winners, but bike-and-pedestrian improvements, while still comparatively small, also saw a big jump and increased five-fold compared to the last TIP.

Funds for public transit also saw a modest jump. D’Andrea said this includes some money for capital improvements, but most is for operations. The majority of public transit funds are funneled to Port Authority of Allegheny County — rebranded Pittsburgh Regional Transit last week — the region’s largest public transit agency.

Read the full article at www.triblive.com

Twenty-five road and bridge projects have been identified by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC)  as being under construction or in the planning and design stages in Lawrence County.

Those projects are expected to be underway or finished between this year and 2022.

Members of the 10-county regional agency, based in Pittsburgh, hosted a public open house Wednesday at the Lawrence County Government Center. Attendance was sparse at the session that featured maps and lists of projects — current and proposed — that have been divided into three categories. Those that are funded and will take place within 25 years, those currently under way or in design, and those that have no funding commitment yet.

One of the presenters, Andy Waple, director of transportation planning, explained that the SPC coordinates all of the transportation planning in southwestern Pennsylvania, working with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, county planning departments and transit authorities in each county. The agency lays out a mission, goals and policies of how state and federal transportation money will be used in the next 25 years, he said. 

Read the full article at New Castle News

Nearly two months after her son was injured responding to a crash scene, Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche will raise awareness for “Crash Responder Safety Week” on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at a Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission news conference.

“God uses us all in interesting ways,” she said with a chuckle Monday. “It just so happens that I’m chair of the commission right now, and I’ve had this experience, so to the extent that we can use it to help educate others, we will.”

Osche’s son — state Trooper Josh Osche, of Troop D in Butler — was struck Aug. 24 when he stopped to assist at an accident along the Parkway West in Robinson Township, Allegheny County.

Off-duty, Josh was hit while attempting to place flares around the crash of a Subaru Impreza and a tow truck.

Osche said the tow truck’s driver, Blair Johnson, made the “heroic effort” of dragging her son to safety after he was hit.

“He realized pretty quickly that Josh was in big trouble,” she said. “He said he never expected, when (Josh) landed, that he was going to be alive — based on how far in the air he was launched.”

Since the accident, Osche said her son has been “making great progress” and is up and moving with the assistance of a walker.

“We’re finally able to get in a regular vehicle, and that just happened within the last two weeks,” she said. “He’s actually able to get out a little bit.”

Josh still is unable to put his full weight on his left leg, she said, but she said he’s expected to meet with a surgeon before Thanksgiving Day.

“He’s coming along fine,” she said. “His spirits are fabulous.”

And while he recovers, Osche said, Josh is still participating in state police work as part of its cellular analysis task force.

“He’s studying and researching and producing maps,” she said, “and also still — to the extent that he can — providing assistance to his colleagues in searching and doing analyses to help them find people or reconstruct incidents.”

But he hopes to return to his regular duties soon, Osche said.

“I’m hoping that once we get through the holidays, he’ll be able to go back to the barracks at least,” she said.

Josh speaks very highly of Johnson’s assistance at the crash, according to Osche, and he empathized with the driver who hit him — who “was very shook up.”

“He doesn’t fault anybody; that’s the one thing about him,” she said. “He doesn’t fault anybody, because I think he felt like an accident’s an accident.”

As chairwoman for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Osche said one of the planning organization’s roles was to “call attention to traffic safety.”

“It’s not just the safety of roadway construction, but in this case, it’s encouraging drivers to be safe and pay attention when there are crashes and crash responders on the highway,” she said.

With “Crash Responder Safety Week,” Osche said Tuesday’s news conference — at the Strip District Terminal in Pittsburgh — will include a memorial for local first responders killed responding to crashes.

“I think this is really just to call attention to the fact that this has a significant impact on people’s lives, and we hope that drivers will be aware of their surroundings, pay attention, watch for those flashing lights, blinker lights, reflective vests,” she said. “Watch for those things, and slow down.”

View the full story at butlereagle.com

You can play an active role in the transportation planning process by attending public meetings, as well as reviewing documents, maps and related materials. We welcome you to ask our staff members and representatives of partner agencies questions, discuss issues with them, and provide us with your thoughts and opinions. The comments you provide to our organization will help shape the future of our region.

We inform the public about our meetings in a variety of ways including securing earned media coverage, placing advertisements in community newspapers, and through social media among other initiatives. If you can’t make it to one of our public meetings, but still want to share your thoughts and comments with us, you can do so by mail, email, or phone. 

Email: comments@spcregion.org
Mail: Southwestern PA Commission, 42 21^st Street, Suite 101, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Phone: (412) 391-5590     

• Public Participation Plan
• Limited English Proficiency Plan
• Limited English Proficiency Report
• Limited English Proficiency Interactive Map
• 2021 Public Participation Report: Public Participation Plan Update
• PPP Guidebook

• Discrimination Complaint Procedures
• Discrimination Complaint Procedures – En Español
• Title VI Compliance Plan
• Discrimination Complaint Form
• Discrimination Complaint Form – En Español

• Public Notice from SPC Regarding Title VI

Events Calendar

What is a Regional Safety Action Plan?

This is an essential planning document that aids in identifying strategies and project locations to achieve the safety goals, which were established in the region’s Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), “SmartMoves for a Changing Region”, and attain the five federal safety performance measure targets for the region. The RSAP supplements PennDOT’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), by identifying regional safety focus, and location specific improvement areas. With the 2021 development of the federal “Safe Systems” approach, guidelines, grant opportunities, and Proven Safety Countermeasures (PSC), the SPC 2025 RSAP incorporates safety programs, projects, and policies that work towards zero roadway fatalities and serious injuries. A “safe system” harnesses safety tools that could be focused on infrastructure, the transportation industry, human behavior, vulnerable roadway users, and emergency response as relevant.

The goal is zero deaths & serious injuries on our roadways. The plan maps out how we reach this goal.

SPC HAS UPDATED THE REGIONAL SAFETY ACTION PLAN FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.

This is a different roadway safety plan that uses the Safe System Approach. The approach recognizes that humans makes mistakes and that deaths & suspected serious injury crashes are not an acceptable cost of traveling in your communities.

To develop this safety plan, we compiled data, local expertise, and public feedback to find the locations where people are most at risk of fatal or serious injury. We can identify projects, policies, and programs that solve these risks, and we will work together to implement them.

The goal is zero deaths & suspected serious injuries on our roadways. The Safe System Approach is how we reach this goal.

Calls to Action

1. SPC commits to reducing fatal or life-altering injuries on Southwestern Pennsylvania’s transportation system to Zero by 2075.
2. Increase attentive driving.
3. Increase sober driving.
4. Increase calm driving.
5. Increase use of protective gear.
6. Increase regional safety culture.
7. Support both youth and older driver training.
8. Support all vulnerable road users.
9. Continue to use Road Safety Audits to employ Proven Safety Countermeasures to the High Injury Network.
10. Continue to support & strengthen Traffic Incident Management, HSIP projects, and Safe Routes to School.

Unsung Heroes – Click to hear their story!

Officer Jeff Colello

Evan Schoss

Neil Cahill

Paul Pozar

Cherise Daniels

Sheriff Bob Fyock

Dan Harvey

Full Playlist

In the Know – On the Go PSAs

Full Playlist

Welcome to the SPC Regional Vision Zero Crash Dashboard for 2020 – 2024

How to use the dashboard

We have designed the dashboard using the Tableau platform. It shows a lot of data without having to change any of the settings. However, this guide helps you use the dashboard to explore the data in different ways.

Each section in the dashboard is fully interactive, meaning you can click, select, filter, and hover over any items in a map or chart to change the display or show more information.

How to filter

Another filter type in the dashboard is the checklist. In the example here, you can deselect the categories you don’t want to display in the map or chart. The example here is a drop-down checklist that will display when you click on the drop-down arrow pictured at right. Deselect the items you don’t want to display on the map. To add data back to the display, click on the appropriate check boxes. See something we could improve on this page? Give dashboard feedback.

Relevant Publications

• Annual Reports

  • None Currently. Please check back.

• Meeting Minutes and Agendas

  • None Currently. Please check back.

• Roadway Operations and TSMO

  • None Currently. Please check back.

• Road Safety Audits

  • None Currently. Please check back.

We want to hear from you!

Learn more about planning for safety on your roads ‘Get Safe!’ plan by completing our Contact Form. If you have a community event and would like one of our transportation operations & safety planners to attend or speak about our ongoing “Get Safe!” efforts, please send us an email at eschoss@spcregion.org or nhirsch@spcregion.org.

PennDOT District 12 officials highlighted nine of the 103 projects anticipated to be in construction status this year in Fayette, Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland counties, representing an investment of $528 million.

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s commitment to delivering safe highways and bridges across the Commonwealth remains a top priority.

These investments support the Shapiro Administration’s vision of a safe and reliable transportation network that connects Pennsylvanians to greater opportunity.

Shapiro’s 2023-24 budget secured $125 million to fully leverage federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) investments and improve Pennsylvania’s roads and bridges.

The investment is made possible by decoupling Pennsylvania State Police funding from the Motor License Fund and is the first year of the governor’s four-year proposal to invest an additional $1.25 billion in the state’s infrastructure.

Statewide in 2023, 684 bridges went out for bid to be repaired, replaced, or preserved and 7,011 roadway miles were improved by department or partner crews.

Just down the block from the historically significant Dunlap Creek (Cast Iron) Bridge in Brownsville, department officials were joined by a Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission representative who discussed funding for regional roads and bridges.

“I am eager to oversee my first construction season in the position of new District 12 Executive,” said Rachel Duda. “My top goal is to look for ways that improve safety and save people’s lives through advances in our transportation system.”

“We are excited for District 12’s upcoming construction season. This work is part of SPC’s four-year, $3.9 billion Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) that we are continuously working on with our local, county, and state partners to prioritize our region’s infrastructure needs,” said SPC Director of Transportation Planning Domenic A. D’Andrea. “These critical infrastructure investments allow our transportation system to be more resilient and enhance our communities.”

Overall highlights in the 2024 construction season for the southwest region – including projects supported and accelerated by the BIL – include, approximately:

• 93.87 miles of paving.
• 500 miles of roadway sealcoating and crack sealing.
• 28 bridges will be preserved, 45 bridges rehabilitated or replaced.
• 20 slides will be repaired by department forces with an additional six slide locations in a construction status.

“As Assistant District Executive for Construction, I have the privilege of working with many talented professionals to deliver our construction projects in District 12. Soon we’ll break ground for a full rehabilitation of the Dunlap Creek Bridge,” said Bill Beaumariage. “This project has deeps roots in our western Pennsylvania history, and we are proud to be preserving the amazing work of our ancestors.”

Significant new projects beginning this season include:

Fayette County

• Dunlap Creek (Cast Iron) Bridge Restoration: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (National Register) and National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, the superstructure was constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1839 as the first cast iron metal arch bridge in the United States.

Complete structural rehabilitation and repairing of the existing bridge, carrying Route 4003 (Market Street) over Dunlap Creek. Installing a new mid-block crossing and a pedestrian bridge for pedestrian safety and accessibility, in Brownsville Borough, $8.9 million.

Notable ongoing projects from 2023 include:

Fayette County

• Route 711 Crawford Avenue (McCray Robb) Bridge: Replacing the existing, six-span steel superstructure of the Route 711 Crawford Avenue Bridge with a new, wider superstructure consisting of continuous composite steel plate girders in the City of Connellsville, $11.5 million.

Westmoreland County

• Laurel Valley Transportation Improvement Project (LVTIP): Upgrading the Route 981 corridor from the intersection with Route 819 in Mt. Pleasant Township to the intersection with Route 30 in Unity Township. Phase 1 (the southernmost of the three-section project) is underway, reconstructing Route 981 from the intersection with Route 819 north to a point just south of the town of Calumet, $55.2 million.

Countywide 2024 construction maps, and a full project list, are attached. Dates are current as of the date of publication and are subject to change based on weather and operations.

View the full article at dailycourier.com.

Rich Fitzgerald, outgoing Allegheny County executive, is heading to a new gig.

After serving 12 years as the county’s top official, he’ll become executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a federally certified metropolitan planning organization and local development district that maps a blueprint for growth in 10 counties in the region. It helps counties, cities, municipalities and townships to access more than $35 billion state and federal transportation and economic development funds allocated to the region through 2045.

Fitzgerald, who was named 2202 Pittsburgher of the Year by Pittsburgh Magazine because of his public service, is term-limited in the county executive position. He’s slated to begin his new job on Jan. 2.

In his new position, the Squirrel Hill father of eight will lead a team of 50 staff members that focus on seven areas, including economic and workforce development, transportation planning and strategic initiatives and policy.

“The board had several objectives when we launched the search process: to attract a candidate that intrinsically understood this region’s unique needs and characteristics, had a track record of leadership and growth cultivation, and would build upon the current strength, talent, and consistency of the SPC staff,” said Leslie Osche, the commission’s board chair and Butler County Commissioner, in a press release.  “We interviewed a diverse group of candidates from the region and beyond. Rich Fitzgerald certainly exceeded the board’s robust qualifications and competencies.”

The commission’s current executive director, Vincent Valdes, will retire at the end of this year. Fitzgerald’s county executive post will be filled by progressive Democrat Sara Innamorato, who was elected in November as the first woman to assume the county’s top position.

View the full article at pittsburghmagazine.com.

Nearly two months after her son was injured responding to a crash scene, Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche will raise awareness for “Crash Responder Safety Week” on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at a Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission news conference.

“God uses us all in interesting ways,” she said with a chuckle Monday. “It just so happens that I’m chair of the commission right now, and I’ve had this experience, so to the extent that we can use it to help educate others, we will.”

Osche’s son — state Trooper Josh Osche, of Troop D in Butler — was struck Aug. 24 when he stopped to assist at an accident along the Parkway West in Robinson Township, Allegheny County.

Off-duty, Josh was hit while attempting to place flares around the crash of a Subaru Impreza and a tow truck.

Osche said the tow truck’s driver, Blair Johnson, made the “heroic effort” of dragging her son to safety after he was hit.

“He realized pretty quickly that Josh was in big trouble,” she said. “He said he never expected, when (Josh) landed, that he was going to be alive — based on how far in the air he was launched.”

Since the accident, Osche said her son has been “making great progress” and is up and moving with the assistance of a walker.

“We’re finally able to get in a regular vehicle, and that just happened within the last two weeks,” she said. “He’s actually able to get out a little bit.”

Josh still is unable to put his full weight on his left leg, she said, but she said he’s expected to meet with a surgeon before Thanksgiving Day.

“He’s coming along fine,” she said. “His spirits are fabulous.”

And while he recovers, Osche said, Josh is still participating in state police work as part of its cellular analysis task force.

“He’s studying and researching and producing maps,” she said, “and also still — to the extent that he can — providing assistance to his colleagues in searching and doing analyses to help them find people or reconstruct incidents.”

But he hopes to return to his regular duties soon, Osche said.

“I’m hoping that once we get through the holidays, he’ll be able to go back to the barracks at least,” she said.

Josh speaks very highly of Johnson’s assistance at the crash, according to Osche, and he empathized with the driver who hit him — who “was very shook up.”

“He doesn’t fault anybody; that’s the one thing about him,” she said. “He doesn’t fault anybody, because I think he felt like an accident’s an accident.”

As chairwoman for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Osche said one of the planning organization’s roles was to “call attention to traffic safety.”

“It’s not just the safety of roadway construction, but in this case, it’s encouraging drivers to be safe and pay attention when there are crashes and crash responders on the highway,” she said.

With “Crash Responder Safety Week,” Osche said Tuesday’s news conference — at the Strip District Terminal in Pittsburgh — will include a memorial for local first responders killed responding to crashes.

“I think this is really just to call attention to the fact that this has a significant impact on people’s lives, and we hope that drivers will be aware of their surroundings, pay attention, watch for those flashing lights, blinker lights, reflective vests,” she said. “Watch for those things, and slow down.”

View the full story at cranberryeagle.com

We manage one of the largest regional data resources for planning and economic development projects. Utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we works with local governments, private industries and community organizations. We provide accurate, comprehensive data to move planning into development.