Countywide : Bordering Cities to Synchronize Signals

Cities throughout Orange County are synchronizing traffic signals across their boundaries, which will soon create a smoother traffic flow, city engineers said.

“It’s a landmark project,” said Jim Otterson, Huntington Beach traffic engineer. “We’re the first in Southern California to do this as a regional project, rather than city by city.”

Huntington Beach, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach and part of Garden Grove are among the first cities to participate. Work will begin this week, finishing by Sept. 1.

The cities comprise one of 11 “growth management areas,” defined by the Orange County Transportation Authority.

“The goal is to get cities in the regions to communicate and solve traffic problems,” Otterson said.

Funding for the $250,000 synchronization project will come from Measure M, a half-cent sales tax approved in 1990.

Streets affected include Valley View and Brookhurst streets, Knott, Magnolia, Westminster, Bolsa, Edinger, Warner and Adams avenues and Seal Beach Boulevard.

Another synchronization project area includes Cypress, Stanton, La Habra and Garden Grove. That group will begin synchronizing signals later this year.

In a similar but unrelated project, La Habra will install new microwave equipment in its traffic lights . Microwave beams will transmit information about the volume of traffic from one intersection to the next so the signals respond accordingly. The signals also will be synchronized, and city officials said the project will be completed by October.

Fifty-nine signals across more than 20 miles of arterial highways in La Habra and parts of Brea will be affected. Streets include Harbor, La Habra, State College and Brea boulevards, Lambert Road, Central and Randolph avenues and Birch Street.

Eighty percent of the funding for the $327,000 traffic project in La Habra will come from the Air Quality Management District, which will measure the reduction in vehicle emissions from the improved signal timing. The other 20% will come from Orange County Combined Transportation Funding Programs.

“It’ll help clean the air,” said Leo Ingram, a La Habra traffic engineering aide. “It will be a smoother, quicker drive, and you won’t have people sitting at traffic lights, their cars spewing out pollutants.”