Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Murrysville business owners relieved that Route 22 work over
Sunday, April 17, 2005
By Caitlin Cleary, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After more than two years and $30 million, the stretch of Route 22 that runs through the heart of Murrysville's business district is complete. To the relief of commuters and local business owners, construction crews are wrapping up the overhaul of this primary east-west highway connecting Pittsburgh to its fast-growing suburbs.

Officials will mark the occasion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Thursday at the PennDOT field office in Export.

The widening and beautification of Route 22, in the planning for more than a decade, has been carried out in a series of small segments. But perhaps no other piece of roadway produced more disgruntled business owners and disoriented motorists than the 2.8-mile segment spanning the Allegheny County line to the Cozy Inn Bridge in Murrysville.

The rolling lane closures and maze of orange cones made every day a new experiment in navigation for motorists. For some local business owners, the disruption proved too much; they folded or moved away. Others survived by changing their business plans -- adding delivery service, crafting homemade signs or temporarily shutting down other locations.

And the promise of a newly refurbished highway has lured new development to the corridor. Local officials believe, that on balance, the reconstruction project has helped local businesses, giving residents a swifter commute and making Murrysville a more attractive place for developers.

"In the beginning, it did hurt some businesses in the area, and some did close," said Tom Sochacki, president of the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce.

But since then, Walnut Capital has built two shopping plazas at the intersection of Cline Hollow Road, Sochacki said.

"We've had quite a bit of interest, even from people outside the area," he said. "The project has opened up the area a little more, made it look a little more presentable. It looks like an opportunity for people to invest in Murrysville."

Because of their sprawling configurations and easy access to Old William Penn Highway, the large shopping centers along Route 22 didn't suffer as acute a drop-off in traffic as single-entry businesses, such as the Jade Garden restaurant, which has been on the highway for 23 years.

"[PennDOT] could do a lot better than what they did," said owner Wendy Wang. Unfamiliar with the new terrain and with what some business owners say were inadequate signs, drivers frequently missed entrances and were unable to figure out how to turn around. Most of the time, they kept driving.

"They kept changing the pattern of the road," said Wang. "A lot of people ... just avoided the area."

During the construction, Keith Langston, of Langston Subaru, estimated his dealership drew only a quarter of its regular traffic.

"The backups were just atrocious," he said.

During the construction project, Jade Garden's business dropped off about 40 percent. Three times, crews shut down the waterline with only a couple of hours' warning, Wang said, leaving Jade Garden without water. One day, the restaurant had to close because of it.

In an effort to save the business, Wang put in a sushi bar, and started up delivery service.

Business owners crafted their own homemade signs to lure back their regular customers.

"If you didn't have a sign, nobody knew where you were," said Tony Spadaro, owner of Spadaro's Restaurant & Lounge.

Some banded together, chipping in several thousand dollars each for a contractor to carve a narrow connecting road through the backs of their properties, accessible to Old William Penn Highway, which runs parallel to Route 22. Spadaro's Restaurant & Lounge has been in business for 16 years. Spadaro thought of relocating, but said it was "too big of a building to just abandon."

Confused by the new "jug handle" turnarounds, some people are still afraid to come out to Murrysville, Spadaro said, and his business has not come back the way it should.

Wang's business, however, is beginning to rebound. On a recent afternoon, there was a sizable lunch crowd at Jade Garden.

Larry Maricondi, assistant construction manager for Westmoreland County, was PennDOT's project manager for the Murrysville segment. The primary challenge was simply to get all those commuters through the project while at the same time maintaining access to individual businesses.

"There were a few bumps in the road, but I think overall it went well," said Maricondi. "Considering the volume of traffic in that area, and the congestion with local businesses, I expected much worse conditions."

During the design process in 2002, nearly 27,000 cars a day traveled that stretch of road. The new highway was designed to handle a traffic load of nearly 37,000 cars per day, Maricondi said, which is projected for 2022.

PennDOT had signs posted on either end of the construction, giving the public information about a Web site they could visit, www.renew22.com, to file complaints or check on the latest traffic pattern.

Thursday's ceremony also marks the breaking of ground on the next four-mile stretch of road, running from the Cozy Inn cut-off to the Route 22/66 interchange. It is scheduled for widening and improvement over the next 18 months.

For now, locals say, the traffic congestion has simply been moved farther out east.

"Traffic gets through that section quicker now with controlled turning lanes and our jug handles," said Maricondi. Unfortunately, once motorists get through the completed section, they hit the next bottleneck.

Langston has begun to feel the pressure from the newest section of reconstruction.

"The traffic already is backing up again," he said. "Oh well -- the cost of progress."

< Back to Headlines | Back to top