FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                   

Contact:   John Davis, Lee County Chief Traffic Engineer
                (941) 694-7600

LEE COUNTY TO RETIME LIGHTS AT 110 INTERSECTIONS ON LOCAL ROADS

FORT MYERS, Fla. (January 28, 2002) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners on Tuesday (Jan. 29) will be asked to take the next step in a process to do a major retiming of traffic lights at more than 100 intersections around the county – primarily along state roads, but also those in the county and cities – and study possible upgrades to the traffic signal system.

 The county’s Department of Transportation is requesting that the Board approve the ranking of consultants for the project and authorize contract negotiations to begin with the top-ranked firm, Kittelson & Associates.  The work will cost about $420,000 and the county will be reimbursed by the Florida Department of Transportation.

 The county maintains traffic lights along state roads for FDOT.

 The consultant will provide expertise in the retiming of 110 intersections in 19 different traffic-light groupings.  Roads being retimed include Cleveland Avenue/U.S. 41, Palm Beach Boulevard, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Colonial Boulevard, Daniels Parkway, Pine Island Road, Bayshore Road, U.S. 41 North, Country Club Boulevard and Viscaya Parkway.  The work will include data collection, data analysis and documentation, timing implementation, and timing evaluation and fine-tuning.

The other part of the project involves a detailed review of the Traffic Signal System along the roads, including communication functions and existing hardware and software.  The consultant will be looking at potential upgrades to the system so that individual traffic light “controlling” hardware and software – or controllers – can communicate better with master controllers for entire segments, and that information can be efficiently linked to the master computers at the traffic engineering offices.

 “This takes a comprehensive look at the system and retimes everything we have not had a chance to address yet in the similar detailed fashion that we have done at other intersections,” said John Davis, Lee County’s Chief Traffic Engineer. 

Lee County’s Transportation Department plans, builds, expands and maintains county roads, bridges, ditches and landscaping in the unincorporated areas of Lee County.  It also maintains the county traffic signal system and operates the toll facilities on the Midpoint Memorial, Cape Coral and Sanibel Causeway bridges.  It employs 374 and has an annual operating budget of $32.9 million.