A $1.5 million project has begun on Peach Street to help traffic flow more fluidly and efficiently.
New cutting-edge technology is being installed in an area that PennDOT has deemed “high traffic.” WJET talked to township supervisors about what they hope might be accomplished through the project.
If you’ve been on Peach Street on a Saturday afternoon, you know that it’s best to leave an ample amount of time to get to your destination. A new project is entering phase one to reduce and even get rid of this issue.
Millcreek and Summit Townships are teaming together to improve traffic flow along Peach Street. It’s called “Green Light-Go” and the new system will be one of the first to operate in Pennsylvania.
“PennDOT identified Peach Street as a high-traffic corridor. I don’t think you’ll find anyone who will disagree with that and moving the traffic is a fix that has been a long time coming,” said Daniel Ouellet, Millcreek Township supervisor .
Improvements will be on Peach Street from Robinson Road to West Gore Road and has been a couple of years in the making.
With the help of funding from PennDOT, the new system will use AI technology to monitor and respond quickly to vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle flow.
“Each traffic signal will have two cameras at the intersection, they’re all 360-degree cameras,” Ouellet said. “They’ll transmit signal back and forth via fiber.”
“For someone my age and AI and all this computer talk, I’m somewhat tech savvy but not like the younger people of course. Sometimes they portray AI as being threatening and scary. In most cases, especially this one, it comes in handy ,” said Tony Davis, Summit Township supervisor and assistant road master.
Davis said this project should resolve what he calls “the Peach Street jam” and will be completed sometime in 2024.
“It’s like having people flagging traffic basically, and they can say, ‘hey these guys need to go, there’s nobody over here. Let’s keep things moving,’” Davis said.
Both supervisors agree that this is a great opportunity to work together.
“Any time you can collaborate with another municipality, it’s usually a win-win,” Davis went on to say.
The project’s goal is to have every traffic light from Robison to Gore roads communicate with each other.
