Christina Donahoe was excited to be painting another mural where she grew up.
After creating a floral mural in Export in 2022, she has been preparing to start a mural project to cover unsightly graffiti on a Route 22 underpass in Murrysville.
She was in the process of lining up potential donors and working on the specifics of an agreement between the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Murrysville officials when she found out the project would have to wait.
Donahoe received a message in April from PennDOT officials that the agency had suspended the program collaborating with artists to create murals along the state’s roads.
“That came as a surprise to me, because I wasn’t aware they’d been ‘suspended’ in the first place,” said Donahoe, an Export native.
After couple more months with no word from PennDOT, Donahoe reached out again, and received a reply from PennDOT District Permit Engineer Bill Krichbaum that “as of now, PennDOT is still not allowing them.”
PennDOT officials say they are looking to create a more-formal process for the murals’ creation.
According to an email from PennDOT’s legal department, “PennDOT’s mural policy in the past was not in writing, but instead required execution of an agreement. To ensure that there is a consistent statewide approach and we take into account our collective experience with murals, PennDOT is working to finalize a statewide policy to initiate, install and maintain murals.”
PennDOT officials said that while there haven’t been any safety-related incidents regarding the creation of the murals, “safety is a paramount concern and this policy will ensure, among other considerations, that there are adequate measures in place to keep artists and motorists safe.”
