Albany Traffic Signal and ITS Improvements

Albany Traffic Signal and ITS Improvements

City of Albany, Albany County, New York

This $6.7 million Federal aid project included Preliminary Design, Environmental Approval, Final Design, and Construction Inspection of traffic signal improvements, ADA improvements, and Intelligent Transportation Systems at 61 intersections along the Washington, Western and New Scotland Avenue corridors in the City of Albany, New York. The project included new traffic signal controllers, signal heads, vehicle detectors, pedestrian signal heads and countdown timers, ADA compliant curb ramps, ITS communications equipment at three tower sites, and a new Centralized Traffic Management System.

The project coordinates the traffic signals in each corridor, thereby reducing traffic congestion and delay, improving traffic flow, and air quality. The project also established a hybrid communication system which is combination of a WiMax radio system and existing fiberoptics as the communication link between the local Traffic Operations Center (TOC) and each intersection through the use of a centralized computer management system. The signal system provides emergency pre-emption, and also facilitates transit signal priority (TSP) by utilizing a centralized traffic management system.

This project won the 2016 ITE NY Upstate Transportation Project of the Year and the 2017 ACEC New York Engineering Excellence Platinum Award in the Transportation category.