The intersection of Fairview and Sunnyslope roads, considered
one of the county’s more dangerous crossing, is the latest in a
series of local intersections that will soon be controlled by
traffic lights.
”
If everything goes as planned, they should be installed and
working by the beginning of November,
”
Assistant Public Works Director Arman Nazemi said.
”
We are currently working on a design.
”
The intersection of Fairview and Sunnyslope roads, considered one of the county’s more dangerous crossing, is the latest in a series of local intersections that will soon be controlled by traffic lights.
“If everything goes as planned, they should be installed and working by the beginning of November,” Assistant Public Works Director Arman Nazemi said. “We are currently working on a design.”
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors recently approved the installation because of a growing history of serious accidents at the site, and if the project proceeds as planned, it will cost considerably less than a standard signal-light configuration.
“We are going to install a simplified version of the normal traffic signal system,” Nazemi said.
The version would cost an estimated $40,000 compared to the $160,000 that construction of the average traffic-signal arrangement costs. Instead of using the standard form of metal poles to hold the traffic lights in place, the simplified version would use wooden poles similar to the type used to hold utility lines. The poles would be placed on all sides of the intersection and a cable would be used to suspend the signal lights over the intersection.
“There would be no compromise in the quality of the signal lights used,” Nazemi said.
Using the simplified system would maker it easier to modified as the shape of the intersection may change with the eventual expansion of Fairview Road in that area to four lanes and the turning of the intersection into a four-way one instead of a three-way.
Once the intersection reaches its final configuration, officials could then install the more permanent metal poles.
But long before the lights are turned on at Fairview and Sunnyslope roads, motorists will have to adjust their driving pattern to the traffic lights currently being installed at three new intersections: Airline Highway and Union Road; Southside and Union roads and San Benito Street and Union Road.
The signal lights at all three locations are expected to be activated within the next two or three weeks, Public works officials said.
The lights at Southside and Union Roads might be the last intersection to be activated because of a recent hit-and-run accident. Officials said two 14-year-olds, who were joyriding, ran the stop sign at Southside and Union roads and struck the foundations for one of the poles that would hold up the signal light.
“They damaged the foundation and that has to be repaired before we can install the poles at Southside,” Public Works Director Doug Koenig said. “We also have to wait for PG&E to come in and increase the height on some of their nearby power lines. That shouldn’t be difficult for them, its just a matter of them getting in there and doing it.”
Even with the unexpected problems, officials said the lights at all three intersections should be activated by the end of the month.
