DOT: Due to Hwy. 74 construction, sensors removed; timing system now controls many intersections

By JOHN MUNFORD, jmunford@TheCitizen.com
and CAL BEVERLY, editor@TheCitizen.com

So, it’s the middle of the night and you’re sitting — steaming — waiting, waiting, waiting on a red light to change to green on Ga. Highway 74 South — and there’s not another vehicle in sight on the side streets or the highway. And still you wait ...

You might even be thinking, “What stupid bureaucrat misplanned this stupid light?”

It’s true: Even in the middle of the night with few cars on the road, motorists traveling in the construction zone on Ga. Highway 74 in Peachtree City have to stop for red lights, most often when there’s not even a car waiting on the side street.

A survey conducted by The Citizen between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. last week confirmed the phenomenon. The culprit, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation, is the widening project itself. So-called “smart” lights with their sensors buried in asphalt must await the completion of the construction. Until then, the lights are “stupid,” timed to change regardless of traffic conditions.

The Citizen surveyed all highway traffic lights in the city and found that all other traffic lights in the city at that time of night remain green for highway traffic until a car pulls up to a sensor on a side street, triggering the light to change.

Lights in the construction zone, however, will halt traffic on the highway to give side streets between 15 and 25 seconds, on average, regardless of whether there are any cars waiting on the side streets.

The lights are also programmed to provide left turn arrows for highway traffic regardless of whether there are cars there needing that signal, according to DOT spokesperson Kimberly Larson.

Because of the construction, the sensors that notify the lights to “trip” for side street traffic in the construction zone have been removed, Larson said. Instead, the traffic engineers have set each light on a timing system, she said.

The timing cycles are based on the time of day and also due to the various development at each intersection, based on a survey done by the traffic engineers, Larson said.

The timing cycle switches at 6 a.m. to minimize wait times on Hwy. 74 during drive time, Larson said. It changes later in the morning and then again in the afternoon for drive time, she added.

Because the signal timing is different than the sensor activation system seen on all other traffic lights in the city, the lights in the construction zone will change “whether there’s traffic present or not,” on the side streets, Larson said.

The affected intersections on Hwy. 74 include Cooper Lighting/Gardner Park; Dividend Drive/Panasonic; Crosstown Drive/TDK Boulevard; Kelly Drive; and Paschall Road/Willow Road.

Larson said the new sensors for those intersections will be installed near the end of the construction project, typically around the same time the curb and gutter system is installed.