According to a news release, Pittsburgh-based Trumbull Corp. was awarded the nearly $214 million contract to build the first section, which lies mostly in Jefferson Hills but also reaches into West Mifflin and Clairton…

The new toll road also will serve as a test bed for innovative transportation construction techniques that could use noise reduction walls to reduce pollution and produce electricity from traffic-generated road vibrations for road signs, among other things.

The four pilot projects will be:

• Redesigning noise walls using a hollow, honeycomb-like material to reduce sound and treating it with a catalyst that will capture nitrogen oxides generated by vehicles with combustion engines…

• Using the natural vibrations that vehicles cause on road surfaces to generate electricity for road signs…

• Creating a digital, three-dimensional model of a one-mile section of the highway as it is being built… T
• Testing which method works best for recharging electric vehicles as they drive over the road surface.