WEST POINT — Until just recently, you may have had to wait through several light changes at intersections on Highway 45 Alternate in West Point before you could advance.
One reason for that is because the vehicle detection loop system at the highway’s intersections with Main Street and West Broad Street weren’t working properly, causing the flow to be inefficient.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation has spent nearly $40,000 to change that by mounting aerial camera and radar systems on all four lights at both intersections and connecting cabinets at both intersections so the systems can communicate with each other.
MDOT traffic engineering technician W.L. Sanders said vehicle detection loops under the pavement were the previous traffic monitors in those and other intersections. Those create magnetic fields that are broken when a car pulls up. The deteriorating pavement on Highway 45 Alternate caused the wires under the asphalt to break. When that happens, all the magnetic fields are constantly broken, and the loop thinks traffic in all directions is at its peak at all times.
Though they’re more expensive than loops, cameras are pointed toward the lanes and can monitor several cars deep to activate which lights should be green, Sanders said, and unlike under-ground loops, cameras don’t have to be replaced every time the intersection is re-paved.
“It’s designed so that a light will stay green on the main thoroughfare until somebody pulls up on a side street, and it’s designed so that it won’t give a left turn unless somebody is wanting a left turn,” Sanders said. “With the flow of traffic, you can allow more time for more cars as needed.”
Constantly having to replace the underground loop was also a financial headache for MDOT, Sanders said.
“Our crew has been to West Point three different times and re-cut loops in the pavement,” Sanders said. “MDOT is in a challenge right now because we’re running on the same budget and same amount of money that we ran eight years ago. You can imagine how many four lane highway miles that have been added to MDOT to keep up that we’re having to keep up with the same amount of money we had before.”
West Point Chief Administrative Officer Randy Jones said the new systems should provide a substantial improvement in traffic flow.
“If you were headed northbound, at peak times you might have to wait through three light changes to make it through the intersections,” Jones said. “If you were trying to make a left turn, you might have to wait through four. You were lucky if you could make a left turn on 45 at any of those streets if there were more than three cars before the light changes back.”
The systems are made and installed by Temple, a Decatur, Alabama-based company, Sanders said.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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