Edmond plans for future traffic
EDMOND — The days of self-driving cars might be many years off, but the city of Edmond is spending millions to prepare for the future while alleviating backed up traffic.
Since October 2007, the city has been looking at how an intelligent traffic system or ITS could change the flow of traffic as congestion is among the top complaints by residents and those who visit Edmond.
Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation is pushing cities to develop ITS in which the system can communicate information to cars about the intersection and where things are located.
“We are laying the infrastructure right now for the autonomous vehicles that are coming up,” said City Traffic Engineer Tom Minnick. “We need to be ready.”
One stretch of intersections has been finished along Second Street. It was only supposed to take one year to complete, but the work took two and a half years.
Phase two is expected to begin in early November with many changes on how construction moves forward, Minnick said.
The phase will include every intersection along Broadway south of Second Street to the city limits.
Intersections on Danforth from Boulevard Street to Santa Fe Avenue will also be upgraded, along with Covell at Santa Fe and Kelly Avenue.
Costs for the 22 intersection improvements and the laying of 10 miles of fiber-optic cable will be about $5 million. The city will pay 20 percent out of the 2000 capital improvement sales tax.
The costs for the project have increased more than $1 million from estimates that the city gave a few years ago, mostly originating from tighter controls. Final bids are due in October.
“Phase two should have been
well under construction by now,” Minnick said.
Unlike phase one in which Midstate Traffic Control, the contractor, worked on several intersections at the same time, phase two will be done one intersection at a time.
Minnick is also requiring the contractor to ground all electronics to prevent them from short-circuiting, which occurred multiple times under phase one with the contractor replacing the equipment.
“We stood our ground,” Minnick said. “We have put tighter controls on this project.”
Now, an outside inspector to monitor construction has been hired at the request of the city for phase two.
A smart system
ITS allows city staff to monitor traffic flow and to adjust traffic signals from their command office in the downtown Public Works Center.
Each intersection will relay information back by fiber-optic cables and wireless communications, which have been installed on four of the city’s water towers.
“When we do the ITS system, we must have a robust communication
system to connect all of these devices,” Minnick said.
At the command center, two individuals monitor traffic during the lunch and evening rush hours. Staffing the morning rush hour is a hope of Minnick, but the city has not approved the positions yet.
“Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to take care of that,” Minnick said.
All the public can see is an infrared camera that hangs on the traffic light and cameras located on the corners. Everything else is located in a metal
box by the intersection and underground.
Minnick hopes ITS will lower not only congestion but improve safety as fatality wrecks across the United States continue to increase, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The exact number of phases to upgrade all of Edmond’s 102 signaled intersections is unknown, but it is expected to be about six phases.
Phase three is under design work now and will improve 22 intersections mostly along 15th Street. Construction is not expected for several years.