Summary: With more people comes more traffic. Butler County commissioners have been working to keep the flow of traffic moving as the county climbs in population.

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As Butler County’s population grows year-by-year and decade-over-decade, a strong and efficient system of roads to make sure that the influx of new county residents and employees can get from Point A to Point B without hassle is essential.

The roads have been a priority of the current set of county commissioners with projects to support the county’s exponential expansion, which prompted major roads across the county, such as the Route 228 corridor, to undergo regular and significant improvements or upgrades.

“We are constantly doing road improvement projects — whether through construction or maintenance forces,” said Christina Gibbs, community relations coordinator for Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s District 10, which includes Butler County.

And where the work isn’t happening, it’s often being prepared — she said there are multiple projects currently in design for Butler County.

According to Gibbs, the length of a road improvement project varies, depending on its scale and scope. Some roads may require a repaving, while other may require a total reconstruction.

“In some cases it’s years, and in others it’s less,” Gibbs said. “It depends on a variety of factors, such as available funding, scope of work and project scheduling.”

Perhaps the most impressive current road improvement project is taking place on the southern end of Butler County, with multiple safety improvement and enhancement projects along Route 228 having been underway since the late 2010s.

Many of these projects are either complete or close to completion, but Commissioner Kim Geyer said Butler County leaders are continually working with federal legislators to find federal grants that could complete the final construction phase for the 26-mile corridor.

The corridor moves about $38 billion in gross domestic product each year, and it continues to remain a selling point to manufacturers in the region whose employees use the route to travel to and from work.

“That corridor, while it’s been done in various sections, commences at the Beaver County-Butler County line with Freedom Road in Cranberry Township,” said Mark Gordon, the Butler County chief of economic development and planning. “And that road project goes all the way up to State Route 28 in Allegheny County.”

Two significant pieces of the Route 228 overhaul include the Balls Bend Safety Improvement Project and the Three Degree Road project.

The Balls Bend project, which began in February 2021, added a travel lane in each direction to the “Balls Bend” section of Route 228 in Middlesex Township, which intersects with Route 8.

A new signalized intersection and “jughandle” turns — which are ramps or roads that change the way traffic turns left by routing it around an intersection rather than directly to it — were also added. The project finished in January 2025 at a cost of $26.55 million.

“As you go up toward Route 8, they took the terrible, horrible bend out,” Gordon said.

The latter part of the project will involve the reconstruction of about 16,800 feet of road along both Route 228 and Three Degree Road and will include new through lanes, turn lanes and service roads for access control, as well as upgrades for drainage, guide rails and side roads, among other changes.

A large section of Three Degree Road, between the Route 228 and Denny Road intersections, was closed for major roadwork between July 27 and Aug. 11.

“The next major work is along the south side of Route 228, in front of the Mars Area High School, to widen the roadway’s future eastbound lanes,” Gibbs said. “This work has already begun and will continue throughout the rest of the year.”

The last piece of the Route 228 improvement project, yet to get underway, is known as the “Mars Railroad” section in Adams Township. This section is anticipated to be the most expensive, which is why Butler County is seeking grant funding from the federal government to help offset the cost.

According to Gibbs, the project is “currently in the design phases.”

Route 228 isn’t the only road on PennDOT’s lengthy list of projects within Butler County. Roads both situated near and far from the route either are seeing construction or will see improvements in the not-so distant future.

In Cranberry Township, PennDOT is also working on safety improvements to Franklin Road between the Route 228 and Peters Road intersections. These include expanding road shoulders to 5 feet, adding left turn lanes at certain spots and making additional sightline improvements.

The project began in April 2024 and is expected to finish in November 2027, at a cost of $19.1 million.

Further north, near the Butler Memorial Hospital, another major road overhaul has just gotten underway. The Karns Crossing Bridge replacement project seeks to replace the bridge near Butler Memorial Hospital carrying Route 68 over the railroad tracks and Connoquenessing Creek.

The project will also provide for safety improvements at the intersection of Route 68 and Delwood Road, as well as the on-ramp from Route 68 onto Route 422.

The project is estimated to finish in the spring 2028. Delwood Road is closed in its entirety until at least November 2026.

In the area surrounding the Butler Farm Show grounds, PennDOT is working on an extensive road rehabilitation project on Route 68 in Butler and Connoquenessing townships, which involves signal replacements and installing new turn lanes.

The project, intended to improve safety, is estimated to finish in November.

There are also plans for PennDOT to widen a section of Route 356 in Buffalo Township — from two lanes to five — between the Harbison Road intersection in the south and the Buffalo Plaza shopping center in the north.

The project would add two more travel lanes, a center turn lane, as well as sidewalks, ADA ramps and new traffic signals.

The project is currently scheduled to go out to bid in fall 2027 and begin construction shortly thereafter, with construction expected to last two years.

In addition to the major road projects, PennDOT has also begun preliminary design work on a planned total reconstruction of a bridge on Arbor Drive in Brady Township, which carries Route 528 over Big Run. The original bridge was built in 1937, and, according to PennDOT’s website, the construction is expected to last between fall 2026 and fall 2027.

“The proposed plan is to remove the existing steel beam bridge and replace it with a precast concrete box culvert,” Gibbs said.

Cranberry Township particularly has seen the benefits of Butler County’s aggressive road expansion, Gordon said.

In 2021, the MSA Thruway — a tunnel under Route 228 which connected Interstate 79 to two business parks in the township — opened. The thruway, made possible by land donated by MSA Safety, was the result of 25 years of planning.

“The MSA Thruway … connected Cranberry Woods and Cranberry Springs,” Gordon said. “It offloaded traffic from I-79 going to either Cranberry Woods or Cranberry Springs, so they didn’t have to come on (Route) 228.”

Many of the road improvement projects in Butler County have been financed by the county’s infrastructure bank, which provides low-interest loans to municipalities to fund infrastructure improvement projects. One of those was a total reconstruction of Harrisville Road in Cherry Township.

“That’s how we did the Harrisville Road expansion, and that’s how we did the MSA Thruway,” Gordon said.

Prior to reconstruction, Harrisville Road — frequently used by employees of the nearby Iron Mountain facility — had fallen into disrepair. According to Gordon, the project was finished at the end of 2020 at a cost of $1.1 million.