By 2030, navigating University Boulevard and Business Route 60 in Moon Township could be a nightmare.

Drivers braving the intersection may have to traverse 10 additional lanes of traffic, and helpless souls who hit a red light would wait three times longer than in 2007.

Moon Transportation Authority is preparing to address those expected traffic crunches 22 years down the highway, with the help of L. Robert Kimball and Associates engineers.

"With all the traffic that is coming, you are going to need some improvements," Kimball's project manager, Brian Krul, told a handful of people at a public meeting last week in the Moon Township Public Safety Building.

He outlined three alternatives included in the University Boulevard Feasibility Study to ease expected traffic headaches.

No cost estimates and no recommendations were given, just information for the project encompassed by Airside and Portvue drives and Hangar Road.

"Costs may sway people's opinions. We wanted everyone to have an open mind. (But) costs are going to be a big factor," Krul said.

With each alternative, the last halting section on Business Route 60 will be history.

"The rest of Business Route 60 is free flowing. There are no stop signs and no traffic signals. It is like a freeway or an interstate," said Krul.

The three options, whittled down from 10, include adding 10 new lanes with signals, a traditional diamond interchange and an interchange that creates an overpass shifting Business Route 60 traffic over University Boulevard.

The overpass would converge all four exit and entrance ramps into one traffic light and remove signals from Business Route 60 in a configuration unfamiliar in Allegheny County, said Krul.

"They are fairly new to the public. Out west they have quite a few, but they are not common in western Pennsylvania."

With the new interchanges, access to either Horizon Drive or Hangar Road would be eliminated -- a possible issue for Allegheny County Airport Authority.

An authority representative who attended the hearing declined comment on the plan, but said the authority would seek a meeting with the transportation authority.

Most likely, few will have opposition to the more immediate improvements scheduled for 2009.

Traffic signals in the Business Route 60 and University Boulevard area will be reconfigured to work with each other not against each other as they sometimes do, said Adam McGurk, transportation authority executive director.

A total of 25,100 vehicles travel on University Boulevard daily, while 27,300 drivers use Business Route 60.

They will have to pause less at three Business Route 60 intersections, as wait times will be lowered, according to the $259,031 study.

A Federal Highway Administration and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation grant covered $207,225 of that cost, while the transportation authority covered the remainder.

From the public hearing, feedback will be incorporated into a final comprehensive study that will include a recommended option.

It is expected to be submitted to the transportation authority in June.

To submit a comment, contact McGurk at 724-778-4004 or e-mail: to amcgurk@deltaone.com.