LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It’s been one week since heavy rain and wind knocked out several traffic lights around the valley, leading to back-ups at busy intersections.
FOX5 heard from one of the teams in charge of making those repairs as quickly as possible to avoid any traffic accidents.
One of those busy intersections where the signals were out was at Sunset Road and Eastern Avenue near the airport.
The heavily trafficked area was home to stop-and-go traffic as the valley got battered with rain. Clark County Assistant Traffic Manager with the Public Works Department, Tyronne Doram says drivers need to treat these dark intersections as four-way stops. “Typically, during a weather event, we’re going to see more power outages than not.”
But that’s not the only thing Doram worries about.
“Wind can affected it. Wind can turn signal heads that we have to respond to,” Doram said. “We don’t want to signal head point in the wrong direction giving somebody a bad signal.”
Doram has worked with the county for 25 years and knows time is of the essence to prevent any pileups. He says the clock starts ticking the second his team knows there’s a problem.
“The county has a targeted response time of 30 minutes to get a technician out there to assess the damage, and it really depends on how much or what the scope of the issue is before the final repair,” Doram said.
The county maintains 500 signalized intersections, and the county responded to five that day. At the specific intersection of Sunset and Eastern on that rainy Thursday, Metro police data shows there were four crashes.
Doram says a team of two usually tackles the problem areas, but that 30-minute targeted response can vary.
“If it’s a flood related issue, we may need to wait until the waters recede,” Doram said.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case. Doram adds his team has back-up from other agencies in town that are focused on driver safety.
“We’re just a piece of the puzzle when it comes to traffic safety. We rely on our partners at Metro, Freeway & Arterial System of Transportation (FAST) and other agencies and even NV Energy to make sure that our roads are constantly moving,” Doram said.
Thirty-minute fixes are the goal, but if a car crashes and takes down a signal cabinet, it might take six or seven hours to replace.
Doram says his team sees a handful of traffic signal outages each week when bad weather isn’t a factor.
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