MIDDLESEX TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Big changes are now in place on Route 228 in Middlesex Township, Butler County, signaling a key milestone in PennDOT’s multi-year construction which started in late 2020.
“It’ll be such a godsend once it’s all open again,” said driver Julie Carpenter.
She and other drivers are looking forward to the day construction on this busy road is complete.
“I work home health and we’re on the road all the time. We take all the backroads to get around it because it’s just a nightmare,” Carpenter said.
“It’s long overdue. Long overdue,” added driver Barry Bridgeman.
Thursday night, PennDOT opened two new jug handles on 228 — one near Route 8 and one near Harbison Road.
“The purpose of those is to allow traffic to change directions in a safe manner so as not to disrupt the traffic flow on mainline 228,” explained Greg Schnur, a PennDOT senior civil engineer supervisor.
PennDOT also opened new travel lanes that are part of the updated design, which both widens the road and eliminates part of the large curve known as Balls Bend.
“The curvature lended itself to some difficulties to the traveling public, so that’s one of the things we tried to do here was to flatten out these curves,” Schnur said. “At the end of this job, we’ll have two lanes in each direction, center turn lane, similar to our 228 template down in Cranberry Township.”
PennDOT also shut down Park Road, which will have a detour in place until at least mid-October.
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