Federal Downtown Controller and Communication Upgrade Project
Location
Downtown Sacramento
City or County Responsible for Project
City of Sacramento
Category
Safety or Intelligent Transportation System Projects
Author
John Matoba
City of Sacramento
915 I Street, Room 2000, Sacramento, CA 95814
(916)808-7891
Project Description
The Downtown Sacramento Grid, or Central City, is home to City Hall, the Central Business District, the new Golden 1 Arena, the County Seat, and the State Capitol. In addition to the visitors drawn to the State Capitol and surrounding attractions, approximately 5,000 employers and a population of more than 90,000 daytime employees generate tremendous amounts of daily traffic within the Central City. Close to 250 traffic signals and the controllers that operate them lie within the Central City to serve the variety of personal and mass transit options available. The signal cabinets and controllers were originally installed in the 1980’s and 1990’s and had been failing with increasing frequency in recent years, burdening maintenance operations to ensure operational continuity. The equipment at some locations was so outdated, manufacturers no longer support the aging products. Additionally, the signal communication network that tied some of the controllers together was installed in the 1990’s and was obsolete. With the Central City Specific Plan vision for the downtown area, technology upgrades were needed to allow for coordinated operations on the grid. In 2018, the City began the design phase of the Federal Downtown Controller and Communication Upgrade Project to replace the traffic signal cabinets and controllers in the Central City that had reached the end of their life. A Federal Grant had been previously pursued to support the efforts of upgrading all the remaining end of life equipment, instead of inefficiently upgrading the equipment piecemeal as it failed or when it was necessary for a proposed project. The upgrades to the signal control system bring it into the 21st Century to better meet the needs of current and future Central City roadway users. Construction began in January 2020 and is now complete. Along with replacing 97 controllers and cabinets, an additional 27 cabinets were retrofit with new controllers. The controllers are state-of-the-art and can accommodate the current roadway users and future roadway uses, such as a Streetcar. The signal system also benefitted from interconnecting the controllers to the Traffic Operations Center (TOC) with over 100,000 feet of fiber optic cable and installing 32 Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Cameras at key intersections. The new equipment allows the City’s TOC to efficiently manage traffic in the Central City by changing signal timing with the click of a few buttons. TOC Staff can coordinate traffic during special events, temporary street closures, and collisions while stationed in the TOC. The CCTV cameras provide for real-time feedback from the roadway network. The ability to coordinate the City’s traffic signals benefits all roadway users, including pedestrians that frequent downtown events. This state-of-the-art infrastructure provides the technological foundation to achieve the vision for our Central City.
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