Cranberry Township will soon experience what deputy township manager Dan Santoro called at Thursday’s supervisors meeting the “much-anticipated” improvements on Rochester Road.

Much of the project will pertain to widening the collector road from Route 19 to Graham School Road. Santoro said the road will be widened to two through lanes in each direction the entire length of the project, with additional left- and right-turn lanes at intersections. Sidewalks along the northern boundary of the road also will factor into the improvements.

One traffic signal will be added at the intersection of Rochester Road, the entry to the municipal center and the Main Street of the Meeder Development. Crosswalks in that junction will be colored gray and red in an attempt to increase safety.

“We’re really going to try and enhance this so that when you’re traveling this area, this really becomes apparent that it’s a pedestrian crossing,” Santoro said.

The traffic signal will be replaced at Rochester and Thompson Park Drive.

Santoro said the township expects the project to be completed in two segments. The first segment, which is expected to be completed this year or soon into next, will widen the road between just west of the municipal center and Commerce Park Drive, as well as see the installation of the municipal center traffic light.

The northern lanes will be completed first, at which point crews will shift to the southern lanes. Completion of this part is expected by October or November, but the new lanes will not open until the new signal is installed, likely in December or January.

The second segment, which will occur in 2021, will involve the widening of Rochester from Graham School Road to the municipal center, plus the replacement of the traffic signal at Thompson Park Drive.

Doggy day care

It wasn’t a ‘ruff’ choice for Cranberry Township to approve Camp Bow Wow’s conditional use application.

At its Thursday meeting, the township board of supervisors granted the dog day care’s application to move into a currently-vacant building on Progress Avenue, behind Fun Fore All.

Ron Henshaw, township director of planning and development services, said the business should “breathe some life into” the building, just off Route 19. He indicated the business plans to work on the building soon with hopes to open for customers in the fall.

The facility, an 8,200-square-foot building, will entirely house the kennel, with no outdoor facilities. A similar business had applied for conditional use in Adams Township last year, but the use of outdoor facilities proved fatal to its application.