Wednesday, November 13, 2002
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Wednesday, November 13, 2002 |
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Clog continues for Hwy. 54-74 By JOHN MUNFORD
Weekday drive-time traffic on Ga. Highway 54 west of the Ga. Highway 74 intersection is routinely clogged as motorists rush into Peachtree City to work in the morning and out of the city to head home in the evenings. Although a fiber optic timing system is used to keep traffic moving on Hwy. 54, the mass of vehicles can "overload" the system, according to Steve Blackston, district signal engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation. "At times it comes to a complete halt because you reach a saturation point where the road cannot hold more people than it has," Blackston explained. The two-lane bridge over the CSX railroad track also slows things down considerably, he added. The timing system links the traffic light at hwys. 54 and 74 to the lights at Huddleston Road, Planterra Way (which also serves the new entrance to the Home Depot and Wal-Mart) and MacDuff Parkway, Blackston said. There are several different timing sequence patterns employed for different times of the day, optimized to benefit traffic heading into Peachtree City in the morning and out of Peachtree City in the afternoon, Blackston said. There are also different timing sequences for Saturdays and Sundays, he added. The timing sequences are checked about once every month and evaluated for changes on an annual basis, Blackston explained. Sometimes the system is tweaked when necessary, and if the matter becomes complicated then a special traffic timing team out of Atlanta is called in to help with the adjustments, Blackston said. In case the timing system goes down for some reason, each traffic light is also individually timed so traffic can keep moving, Blackston said. That's the only time the lights can be "tripped" by vehicles on side streets, Blackston added. The ultimate goal is always to keep traffic moving on Hwy. 54, Blackston said. "Highway 54 is our main line," Blackston said. "Everything works around Hwy. 54 ... that's where the traffic is." In the next year or so, the DOT will replace the traffic light at hwys. 54 and 74 with new signals since the current equipment is quite old, Blackston added. "It's not out of date, but it's getting close to it," Blackston said. The DOT tries to respond quickly to specific complaints about traffic light synchronization but only has eight employees to do that for its 31-county district, Blackston explained.
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