LAWTON – Upgrading traffic signals on a one-mile section of Gore Boulevard could cost more than $920,000, and modernizing traffic control equipment at intersections throughout town would command a prohibitive price tag of approximately $34 million, a consultant informed the City Council.
B.J. Hawkins, a principal in Traffic Engineering Consultants based in Oklahoma City, presented an informational report on a pilot project TEC performed that focused on the five intersections along Gore between Second Street and Lawrie Tatum Road.
The signals at Second and at Railroad streets “are not operating as efficiently as needed,” said Hawkins, who earned a civil engineering degree at the University of Oklahoma. The signals for the eastbound and westbound ramps to Interstate 44 are “outdated,” he said; new signals and a modern signal cabinet are needed there.
And what were intended to be “temporary” traffic signals at Lawrie Tatum Road were installed approximately two decades ago, Hawkins related.
Consequently, they cause “poor traffic operation” and ought to be replaced with new equipment, he recommended.
Of the five targeted intersections, Lawrie Tatum will be the most expensive one to modernize, Hawkins said.
TEC counted 86 signalized intersections in Lawton, and they are operated with 10 different models of controllers and seven different vehicle detection types, he said. Some traffic signals use arrows to direct motorists, while others employ colored balls.
“It’s less costly to maintain when you use just one system,” Councilman Randy Warren noted.
Most of the traffic signal equipment in Lawton is “out of date,” Hawkins reported. However, “You don’t need to replace the poles everywhere.”
During TEC’s research, “We looked at Rogers Lane, Gore Boulevard, Cache Road and Lee Boulevard,” he said. Cache and Gore have 15 signalized intersections each; Lee Boulevard, 14; and Rogers Lane, seven. Replacing the traffic control equipment at those 51 intersections would cost about $20 million, TEC estimated.
Hawkins also recommended removing the traffic lights at Fourth and Gore.
“Twenty years ago, the traffic lights were set at 36 miles per hour and you could travel all the way through town without stopping,” Mayor Stan Booker recalled. “Now we have all this technology – yet we have trouble getting through three lights without having to stop.” ‘10 Wins’ update In a related transportation subject, Councilman George Gill reported that the first 10 streets in the mayor’s “10 Wins” mill-and-asphalt overlay program were completed Feb. 27 – 19 days ahead of schedule.
Bids on similar rehabilitation of 30 more streets were to be opened March 4 and presented to the city’s Streets, Roads and Bridge Committee (Councilmen Gill, Allan Hampton and Kelly Harris) for review on March 6. The committee’s recommendations are tentatively scheduled to be delivered to the City Council on March 12 for approval.
The mayor’s “10 Wins” program was launched last October, and Booker said he wants all 40 street improvement projects to be finished by Thanksgiving.