Butler, PA (May 20) - PENNDOT Engineering District 10 is pleased to announce that environmental field studies will resume this week for the State Route 228 Improvement Project in Butler County.

This means members of the project team will be in neighborhoods and areas that may be affected by the project. Letters were sent to property owners to let them know the project team will be in the area conducting engineering, environmental, archeological, historical and other studies. These studies will help the project team determine the impacts of each alternative with the end-goal of continually reducing the number of alternatives until only the best choice remains that meets project needs (roadway capacity, access and safety) while minimizing impacts on the environment.

During the winter months, PENNDOT and its project-engineering consultant, KCI Technologies, Inc, of Mechanicsburg, PA, worked to complete Step 4, preliminary alternatives development, of PENNDOT's 10-step development process for the project. The team is now beginning the design and environmental work for Step 5, detailed alternatives development and review. In addition, digital photos were recently taken from the air to create more updated maps.

"With the development of updated mapping for the project area, we can continue the field studies we need to complete the detailed phase of the project," said Richard H. Hogg, District Engineer. "We realize that the residents of Butler County are anxious to move this project forward and we value their input as project development work continues." A range of alternatives developed by the project team, the Route 228 Community Advisory Committee (CAC), and input from previous public meetings, were presented to area residents during an open-house plans display in November 2002. The project team has begun the process to fully analyze all of the nine remaining alternatives. In addition to the off-line alternatives, the project team continues to examine improvements to Route 8 through Middlesex Township.

As fieldwork resumes, the project team will be scheduling meetings with the CAC and other community groups to keep them informed of the projects status and gain their valuable input.

It is important to note the project is in the early stages of preliminary design and, at this point, is still considered to be a study. As the process continues, the project team will gather more information to ultimately decide what the best solution is for Route 228 and the communities it travels through.

The following are anticipated project milestones:

For more information on the Route 228 Improvement Project, visit www.Route228.com.