A traffic upgrade in downtown Chattanooga could mean smoother drive times in and out of work for commuters, city engineers said this week.
"We're trying to minimize the amount of stopping," said John Van Winkle, the city's traffic engineer.
Chattanooga received almost $1.5 million in federal grant money for the upgrades to downtown traffic signals. More than $900,000 comes from federal stimulus money, while the rest comes from federal transportation funds, officials said.
Van Winkle said the upgrades will be to the signals' controllers and cabinets - the "brains" of the traffic devices. He said the last upgrades were in the late 1980s.
"This is upgrading the current to the state of the art," he said.
He said work could start by September and take about nine months to complete. Once done, the signals will be controlled remotely from the city engineering office and can be timed in accordance to how traffic is flowing.
For example, if traffic is coming in, such as the morning commute, the signals can be timed to allow smoother traffic flow into town. During the afternoon, when traffic goes out, it can be set up to do the opposite, he said.
Councilman Andraé McGary, who represents the downtown area, said it should be a "good thing" for the traffic signals to be more synchronized. He said there are a lot of commuters who come downtown to such businesses as the Tennessee Valley Authority and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.
"Who hasn't stopped at a light where you've waited three minutes and then been stopped at another light a few minutes later?" he asked.
BY THE NUMBERS* $900,000: Federal stimulus money awarded to Chattanooga for upgrading downtown traffic signals* $600,000: Additional federal money for the traffic signal project* 86: Number of signals that will be affectedSource: Chattanooga
Evan Gray, who lives in Red Bank and commutes weekdays to the BlueCross BlueShield headquarters on Cameron Hill, said he sees traffic backing up on the Fourth Street exit when he comes to work. He said he is sure that better control of the traffic signals would help that problem.
"It sounds like it would be a pretty good idea to control the flow of traffic," he said. "It gets backed up in the morning."
Wayne West, a computer technician at TVA, said every weekday at 7 a.m. he starts his commute from Ringgold, Ga., to downtown Chattanooga. Broad Street seems to be the worst when it comes to signals, he said.
"There are several lights that stay green way too long," he said.
Ringgold recently upgraded some of its signals in spots where there were backups and traffic jams, he said.
"Now there's like no traffic," he said.