Traffic management centre opened in Richmond County, Georgia

Richmond County located in the US state of Georgia has opened a traffic management centre designed to improve transportation efficiency throughout the county.

Located in the Augusta Engineering Building, the traffic facility has entailed an investment of $4.5m, which was funded through Transportation Investment Act Band 1 funds.

Augusta traffic engineering assistant director John Ussery was quoted by augustachronicle.com as saying that the traffic management centre will enable the department to supervise traffic signals in real time. Additionally, the new hub will decrease traffic signal repair times.

Ussery said: “Even with local funding, it would have taken them years and years to fund enough money for us to actually be able to do that.”

“The big improvement with the TIA project is that we were able to get it all funded at the same time, so we can get it all built and installed at the same time.”

Out of a total of 270 traffic signals in the county, 85 are now connected to the network. However, the department is aiming to connect more than 100 traffic signals to the network by the end of 2019. Plans are also being considered to connect all of them in the near future.

Most of the traffic signals that are currently connected are located on major routes between downtown and Interstate 520.

Ussery added: “Our goal is to get every single traffic signal connected to our network, so we can monitor them and maintain them, keep the public safe, keep the public moving.”

The centre is expected to boost emergency response times while providing benefits to the transit system.

New smart traffic signals are capable of receiving a signal from an emergency vehicle and then automatically turning green.

The department said that it is using 75 high-definition cameras to monitor and enhance traffic flow and they are not designed for targeting traffic offenders.

Richmond County will launch its Masters Week traffic plan next week.