Current Projects

South Park Fairgrounds Redevelopment

Developing a plan for the future of the South Park Fairgrounds builds on the Parks Action Plan, which is transforming and enhancing recreational opportunities at the County’s nine regional parks.

Within six months, Allegheny County will collect data, form a project team, conduct intensive planning sessions, and develop recommendations to present to the public. The goal of the first phase is developing a master plan that is sustainable and appropriately satisfies the needs of park users and other stakeholders. The Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Heinz Endowments have generously provided $22,500 each toward development of the master plan for the site.

Read more about this project in the news release or learn more about the project details and public input process.

Energy Savings Initiative

The Public Works Department is leading an initiative to reduce energy usage. The County has worked with outside experts to conduct energy audits for its 19 largest buildings representing more than 2.5 million square feet of space. They will identify, adopt and benefit from energy and carbon-saving measures that are projected to save taxpayers $2 million annually. One of the expert Energy Savings Companies, called an ESCO, was selected through this competitive process to partner with the County on implementing these energy-saving measures through a special financial arrangement known as a Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement (GESA). Learn more about  kilowatts, calculating energy costs and saving electricity. Read more about Improving Energy Efficiency in County Buildings.

Climate Change

The County partnered in 2009 with the PA Environmental Council to conduct its first inventory of the greenhouse gases produced by County government operations. The final report and plan of action will be posted soon.

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

The County is drafting its first Environmentally Preferable Purchasing guidelines that will dictate better choices for our dollars spent. The initial focus will be on commodity purchases. In addition to overall guidelines, we are examining and tackling items one contract at a time.

Rain Gardens & Green Roofs

The County installed a rain garden in the County Courthouse Courtyard to drive the local development of green infrastructure and to address our regional storm water issues. In addition, the County is developing a green roof on half of the County Office Building as a structured scientific project to demonstrate the effectiveness of the roof in energy efficiency, storm water mitigation, and potential additional benefits such as noise reduction.

Our region faces a difficult challenge in addressing sewer overflows during wet weather because of the high volume of storm water run-off that also goes into the sewage treatment collection lines. The county’s green roof project will help regional municipal governments learn how to incorporate solutions like a green roof to lessen this capacity burden. Construction on the green roof is slated to be completed in the summer of 2010.

Municipal Building Energy Audits

Allegheny County is helping 104 municipalities around the County with a free energy audit. The two-part program offered a free energy audit to municipalities, and will provide needs-based grants to the communities to help to implement the recommended energy conservation measures identified in the audits.  Allegheny County is proud to partner with Duquesne Light Company on this project.  Under its Act 129 Program, Duquesne Light will also be offering some assistance to municipalities as they implement the energy-saving measures.  Read more about it in the June 8, 2009 news release and the March 9, 2010 news release.