Police add patrols, change shifts as Springfield Road closure diverts traffic onto Clifton Heights side streets

At a Clifton Heights Borough Council meeting, the borough’s police chief reported that the closure of Springfield Road will last “several months” and is diverting substantial traffic onto local side streets.

The police chief said the borough has “been cleaning up some dead ends with traffic” since Springfield Road closed and that officers reshuffled duty hours so an overnight squad that had worked 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. will instead work 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. He said the change will put “extra extra officers on doing rush hour both in the morning and afternoon to address the issues in those areas that are affected by the road closure.”

The nut graf: the extended closure and adjacent school construction are creating sustained changes in local traffic patterns, and borough officials said they are coordinating with PennDOT and adjusting signage and patrols to reduce safety risks for residents and schoolchildren.

Council and staff described where traffic is concentrating and what the borough is doing. The police chief said the closure has pushed traffic onto Baltimore Pike and onto side streets including Providence and Oak, North Church, North Sycamore and Summit, creating unfamiliar drivers and speeding risks on neighborhood streets. He said signage adjustments were under way and that the borough manager and he had scheduled “meetings with PennDOT throughout the whole project and the school construction to address issues as they come up.”

The chief advised patience and emphasized enforcement: “Everybody's gotta realize that you have to have patience,” he said, adding that the borough will deploy extra officers and refine signage to keep traffic moving and protect pedestrians near schools.

Borough staff said the closure decision reflected road geometry near the school project and a desire to expedite utility and construction work; the chief said the closed section is narrow and curved, making single-lane flagging less practical for the short term. He said the borough may revisit the closure and the use of flaggers once crews move past the narrow section and the road widens.

Discussion vs. decision: the reassignment of patrol shifts and the signage adjustments are operational actions the police chief implemented; the meetings with PennDOT are a planned coordination step. No formal council vote or ordinance was reported on the record regarding the road closure or enforcement changes.

Officials asked residents to be aware of changed traffic patterns and to report problem locations to borough staff so signage and patrols can be adjusted.

Looking ahead, the borough said it will continue to coordinate with PennDOT and school-construction managers and may reconsider traffic-control methods as the work progresses.