An old idea for traffic management has come full-circle -- so to speak -- with the construction of a round-about in Ohio Township (pictured above). The original local model for such a traffic circle dates back to 1931, when the area’s first round-about opened on Route 65 at the McKees Rocks Bridge. Photo by Tom Steiner for The Citizen

What goes around sometimes goes around -- and around and around…

Or so it seemed when Ohio River Boulevard opened as a state-of-the-art road that linked Pittsburgh to the North Boroughs, terminating, at that time, in Emsworth.

Henry “Hank” Roth, 90, formerly of Emsworth and now an Avalon resident, recalls the day when the road officially opened.

“I was in a parade there when they officially opened the boulevard in August of 1931. My uncle, John Sevin [Emsworth Borough secretary], was driving in the parade. All of the politicians in the North Boroughs were there, so he put me in the car with him.”

One of the features of the road was the McKees Rocks “round-about” configuration that allowed continuous flow of traffic from all directions, with drivers veering off to their destinations -- the city, McKees Rocks, California Avenue, and the North Boroughs.

The “Circle” worked.

“There were no traffic lights, because there wasn’t much traffic. But what traffic there was just moved continuously. Everyone took turns moving around the circle and maybe going across the bridge or driving on toward town. At the time, it was a great traffic pattern, but I don’t think it would work today,” Hank said.

In fact, the circle didn’t work past the 1950s, being replaced with turning lanes, traffic lights and traffic jams.

But on a smaller scale, the concept’s time has come around again. The area has a new round-about, this one located on Crawford Road in Ohio Township. With a large housing plan adding to traffic on the 2-lane road, planners had to design some method of keeping the traffic flowing.

Solution? The round-about.

Jill Allan, a vice president of the Meritage Corporation, the developer, said that the colorfully landscaped circle will become the main entrance to the Cobblestone Manor community.

“In our application process with Ohio Township, one of the conditions was that we would improve Crawford Road. We did the paving and township consultants decided that we needed the round-about. It definitely will help with traffic movement,” Allan said.
And so an old idea has a new app., one that (hopefully) should not be replaced any time soon with turning lanes, traffic lights and traffic jams.