Oakmont officials plan to have various intersections repainted to improve pedestrian safety.
Bethel Park-based Parking Lot Paving Co. was awarded a $47,100 contract to do line striping along Hulton Road from the bridge to Allegheny Avenue, and from Allegheny to College Avenue.
Pedestrian crosswalks, intersections and everything except for the double-yellow lines will be repainted next month.
Council unanimously approved the work at its June 20 meeting.
Parking Lot Paving was the only company to bid on the project.
Borough manager Scot Fodi said the company is one of three contractors in the region that do such work. One contractor is out of state and another is from eastern Pennsylvania.
“Line striping is an annual program,” he said. “The last couple years, we’ve been playing catchup. We’ve double our budget (for painting) from $20,000 to $40,000 and beyond because the corridor needed to be improved upon. Next year, we’ll be focused on crossings up the main thoroughfares like the avenues way up the hill. The further we get away from the downtown corridor the less degree of painting that we need.”
The crosswalks are expected to look like piano keys and be uniform on the main streets and mid-block intersections. Fodi said that style helps reduce wear and tear with tires rolling through openings in the keys.
Police Chief Michael Ford hopes the fresh paint will result in fewer accidents in the borough.
“All this does is enhance driver and pedestrian safety by clearly marking the roads,” he said. “Anything you can do to alert drivers and pedestrians helps. This is in their comprehensive plan to keep up on line painting.”
The borough conducted a similar line-painting project last year.
Parking Lot Paving Co. was contracted to do striping along Allegheny River Boulevard from Library Place to Washington Avenue at a cost of about $37,300.
