Feb 17, 2017 2 min read

CANONSBURG – Canonsburg officials Monday discussed a possible weight limit on some borough-maintained streets as a way to cut wear on the road surface and reduce congestion.

Council President R.T. Bell directed public works director Tom Lawrence and solicitor Patrick Derrico to identify streets for a possible weight limit that council would then approve by ordinance.

Asked about the proposal, borough engineer Bob Robinson of KLH Engineers Inc. said an expert with the consulting firm Trans Associates told him some municipalities have adopted local restrictions on their streets that haven’t been challenged to date. He went on to recommend having “some justification” for the ordinance.

Robinson said standard protocol would be to conduct a study of the borough streets that included core testing and measuring pavement thicknesses and subgrades before posting a weight limit.

He said such a study would be “very expensive and time-consuming.”

Bell agreed.

“Core testing all the roads – we don’t have that much money,” he said.

Any limit eventually adopted by the borough wouldn’t apply to state roads.

“Our main roads, basically, are state roads,” Councilwoman Tina Bails said. “Our concern is mostly the residential areas.”

In other action:

• Council earmarked $131,617 for sanitary sewer repairs on North Central Avenue, Elm Alley and Yoney Drive.

• Against the recommendation from the planning commission, council voted down plans by ExteNet Systems to build four “small cell towers” in the public right of way in the borough’s east end.

• Council members approved erecting no-parking signs on the east side of Perry Como Avenue between Highland and Griffin avenues.