“I sent council an email earlier today, forwarding a memorandum from TEC Engineering out of Mason, Ohio,” Smith said. “Just so the public is aware, in the next approximately two weeks, the signals should be recalibrated.”
“They’ll be adding some time in the morning (to increase the green-light time on High and Main), and a little bit more time in the evening rush hour,” Smith said.
TEC employees will be present to watch traffic flow, and can change things immediately if traffic backs up on streets that intersect with High and Main streets, as Butterfield predicted.
TEC employees will be able to tweak the timing “real-time, based on what they’re seeing,” Smith said.
“As Mr. Butterfield stated accurately at the last council meeting, we have a lot of projects under way that are also exacerbating the traffic issue,” Smith told council Wednesday. “I’m looking forward to getting the MLK/High street intersection wrapped up sometime in March, and that should, all by itself, help traffic.”
“But I truly believe by recalibrating the signals, we’ll see some improvement,” Smith said.
Dan Bates, president and CEO of the Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, applauded both the tweaking of the signal timing and the plan to have TEC consultants on hand in case backups happen.
“I think it’s a positive,” Bates said. “I think that there is a way to coordinate the signals to move traffic more freely. Usually when you bring in experts like TEC — and I’m very familiar with what they do — sometimes minor tweaks can make a big difference.”
“If the anticipated outcome is positive to move traffic more freely and keep the intersections from being blocked, then I think it’s a positive,” Bates said.
As for having TEC employees on site, "I think it's a very smart approach to do that, rather than just do something, flip the switch, and see what happens. And something has to be done, because I've been saying under my breath anyhow, 'These signals are not in sequence at all — you get caught for every one in the mornings.' It's kind of crazy," he said.
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