10.3. SR 01-04-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Trunk Highway 10 and Trunk 169 Adaptive Signal Controls ration herburne Co., Elk River, Minnesota, the county seat for Sherburne County, is situated at the intersections of the Mississippi River, Trunk Highway (TH) 10, TH169, TH101, and the BNSF rail line. The population of Sherburne County and our surrounding region has more than doubled in the past 25 years. What is the problem The population growth of our entire region and that of the state has led to increased demand on these important corridors through Elk River. This increased demand has created unparalleled congestion resulting in delays and safety concerns for Elk River residents and users of the highways. In the same span of time where we have seen the population of the region double, very limited improvements have been made on these corridors to handle the increased demand. The impacts are realized by far more than our local residents, emergency service providers and businesses. TH10 and TH169 serve as two of state's "Big 4" corridors connecting vacationers to their recreation destination in northern Minnesota. Proposed Solution The proposed legislation would fund the installation of adaptive control technology on the TH10 and TH169 corridors through the heart of Elk River. Adaptive control technology, which installs on the existing signal systems, fully synchronizes a series of signals and then automatically adjusts signal timing to match the level of traffic approaching each intersection. The current signal systems in place on these corridors, and nearly all signals statewide, are controlled with set Time Of Day (TOD) timing plans. These TOD plans, when optimally synchronized, are limited in their ability to adjust to changing demands of a corridor. When a system is interrupted by a train (more than 70 per day in Elk River) or emergency vehicle it drastically upsets the flow of traffic on the main corridor and side streets. Real time adaptive technology gathers information on the actual number of cars waiting, how long they have been there, and then serve traffic on all legs of the intersection to the greatest efficiency possible. Traditional signal timing methods are not capable of gathering or acting of this real time information. The ability to safely and effectively manipulate the sequencing of the signal to match what is actually going on is paramount to increasing the efficiency of our traffic signals. Travelers want their traffic lights to be more efficient and real time adaptive signal control is the solution. An estimate of costs for the implementation of this project is between $400,000 and $700,000.