TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

More Cameras Will Be Used To Monitor Intersections

ADVERTISEMENT

By RICH SHOPES

rshopes@tampatrib.com

Published: February 5, 2009

TAMPA - Hillsborough County is poised to get to work this summer upgrading its busiest intersections with cameras and other equipment to reduce congestion.

The $30 million upgrade is expected to take up to three years and involve 50 cameras. When the job is finished, traffic engineers will be able to keep tabs on 200 intersections and be able to make quick adjustments to the timing of signals as traffic is backing up. That, in turn, will go a long way toward relieving the rush-hour crunch at the intersections.

"The best thing about this is we can tweak it and monitor with the cameras and see if it's working, and do this in real time," said Peter Brett, manager of the county's traffic engineering section.

About 50 intersections in Hillsborough are covered by 30 cameras, which can swivel 360 degrees and peer a block or two down the road.

In addition, the county is upgrading signal control boxes at intersections as well as the signal heads, swapping out the old incandescent bulbs with light emitting diodes that use 20 percent of the energy and last 20 years instead of three.

The new boxes will give the signals three hours of battery power in case power shuts down because of electrical storms or hurricanes.

In a few years, the county will shift its traffic management center from the 23rd floor of the Frederick B. Karl County Center in downtown Tampa to a building in Sabal Park able to withstand Category 3 hurricanes.

"Whenever we have a hurricane threat, everything in this building shuts down. We can't monitor the traffic systems," Brett said.

Footage from the cameras is not being archived for law enforcement, and the cameras have nothing to do with the red-light cameras the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office plans to install to ticket drivers who run red lights.

The $30 million investment is part of the $500 million approved by Hillsborough commissioners in 2008 for road improvements.

Most of that money will go toward purchasing rights of way and widening traffic-clogged roads and intersections. The county and a team of consultants are busy designing the highway changes and negotiating to buy easements. Motorists won't see construction on those projects for a year.

Traffic management officials agree that more and wider roads are necessary, but they say motorists will get more bang for their buck from the signal technology, such as the LEDs, cameras and upgraded signal boxes.

"Studies show a 20-to-1 benefit-to-cost ratio," Brett said.

One such study, released by the county in January and based on federal guidelines for measuring the financial effects of traffic, indicates an even higher benefit-to-cost ratio in Sarasota and Manatee counties and the cities of Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice.

Sarasota, for example, invested $3.7 million over seven years in signal technology. As a result, motorists, truckers and businesses enjoyed a $25 million a year savings in gas and potential lost productivity. So for every dollar spent, the city received about $46 in benefits.

That's possible, said Brett, because the technology smooths traffic flow.

"We think this will help us tremendously here," he said.

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT