Traffic control system ahead of schedule

MANATEE — Work to install a system of surveillance cameras, traffic sensors and adjustable traffic signals throughout Manatee County is several months ahead of schedule, a regional transportation board learned Monday.

The Advanced Traffic Management System’s first phase likely will be done by year’s end, about six months sooner than expected, said Sage Kamiya, the county’s traffic engineering division manager. The second phase should be done in mid-2011, also a half-year earlier than initially planned, he told the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization.

“It’s exciting,” Kamiya said in a post-meeting interview. “They’ve been working on this since 2001.”

The $30 million two-county system — Sarasota is about to commence construction on its portion — is intended to reduce congestion by improving traffic flow, especially at intersections.

In the system, closed-circuit TV cameras mounted on poles and traffic sensors embedded in the roadway will relay images and data to a central monitoring facility inside the county’s public safety center. There, technicians will be able to monitor traffic conditions and adjust traffic signals as needed to keep traffic moving.

Manatee’s first phase calls for upgrading 143 intersections and installing 38 cameras, all linked by 70 miles of underground fiber-optic cable. That phase is focused on state roads 64 and 70, Cortez Road and U.S. 41 and U.S. 301 south of the Manatee River.

Construction began in 2008. This week, work is being done along S.R. 64 between Interstate 75 and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard; Manatee Avenue West between 26th and 75th streets west, and Cortez Road at 75th Street West, the Florida Department of Transportation said.

The project’s second phase will add 88 intersections, 20 cameras and 44 miles of fiber primarily along U.S. 41 and U.S. 301 north of the river; 26th, 34th, 59th and 75th streets in Bradenton; Lockwood Ridge Road; on Anna Maria Island and in Lakewood Ranch.

A third, not-yet-scheduled stage will give signal priority to fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

Both Manatee and Sarasota’s systems will be connected to each other and to a similar system FDOT is plan- ning for I-75 in both counties.

The FDOT project is expected to cost $28 million and be completed in late 2013 or early 2014, spokeswoman Cindy Clemmons said.

Also Monday, the MPO adopted updated annual project priority lists, which FDOT uses as a guide for planning future projects.

The major-improve- ment projects list largely is unchanged from last year, with widening U.S. 301 north of County Road 675 the highest-rank- ed project in Manatee at No. 5. Adding turn lanes at S.R. 64 and Morgan Johnson Road was Manatee’s highest priority on the congestion-management project list.

Duane Marsteller, transportation/growth and development reporter, can be reached at745-7080, ext. 2630.