Carlsbad Gives Green Light to Traffic Signal Project Finale

Carlsbad will pay $1.75 million to finish a citywide traffic signal improvement project, officials decided Tuesday.

The City Council unanimously agreed to purchase communications, video and other equipment to complete the project.

Project Manager Doug Bilse said the three-year project was six months ahead of schedule and expected to cost $4.5 million, a savings of $1.2 over the original estimate.

In the first two years of the project, the city upgraded equipment, including linking 130 traffic signals to a new traffic management center through a wireless network, which allows staff to monitor traffic on the city’s major streets and remotely control signal lights.

Public Works Director Skip Hammann said the traffic management center also enables staff to collect data to create new traffic signal timing plans to ease congestion.

“We hope to continue to improve the flow of traffic as we go forward, as we understand how the flow of the patterns of traffic moves,” Hammann said. “We’re not done yet, so hopefully people will still see more improvement in the future.”

Timing plans launched last year improved peak-hour traffic flow on major roads from a grade of C to B, according to an assessment of intersections. The city’s traffic signal program also improved from a grade of D+ before the project to B+.

One resident argued that the city can't accurately grade itself and requested improvements to traffic flow during off-peak times.

But Mayor Matt Hall said he noticed a difference in the city’s traffic flow.

“Traffic seems to be one of the biggest quality of life issues for our residents,” Councilman Keith Blackburn said. “It affects everybody from our youngest to our oldest, our richest [to] our poorest, our visitors [to] our residents—so thank you for helping try to alleviate some of the traffic issues.”

Almost all of the city’s 174 traffic signals will be linked to the traffic management center by the end of summer. Staff also plans to come before council members again to discuss how to spend the $1.2 million in savings. Potential projects include upgrading the battery backup system for major roads, investing in a smart map and installing fiber optic cables.

• approved a four-way stop sign at Edinburgh Drive and Glasgow Drive.
  
• certified the Supplemental Program Environmental Impact Report for the Buena Vista Creek Channel Maintenance Project, and adopted the Candidate Findings of Fact and the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.