I want to know who we can talk to about the light (at Green Country Road and Highway 75) that never turns green to go south on Highway 75. This past Sunday I waited four minutes and the light never turned green with no traffic in sight.
Why, Director of Engineering Micah Siemers, that’s who. Here’s his answer:
“In response to this inquiry, City street department staff went out and verified settings on the traffic signal last Friday. That signal is currently set up so that the longest anyone should be waiting is just under two minutes. The detection at that intersection is trigged by cameras, not the wire loops that are at some signals. Really, the loops do the best job of sensing under all conditions, but they become a problem for pavement rehabilitations so most municipalities are moving away from installing those systems on newer signals. Cameras and radar are more typical in the newer setups.
“There are issues sometimes with cameras that can be caused by shadows, glare from sunlight, etc. Also, if it is really windy the mast arms ‘bounce’ and that can affect the consistency of the cameras. Time of day can really affect them due to glare and shadows. Since the cameras that would have detected this car are facing east, if it was earlier in the morning, that could have created shadows and glare that can affect the camera. Also, if this driver pulled too far up and were outside of the camera frame, that could be an issue too. It’s tough to say, but it sounds like whatever caused it, the camera likely did not pick up the vehicle.
“We have asked this resident to let us know what time of day they were at the signal so we can pull the footage and see what may have caused the problem and if there is a way to fix it so it doesn’t happen consistently. Or we might at least know what caused it even if we can’t do anything to avoid it in the future.”
What’s going in there?
The old Disco International building on south Washington Boulevard appears to have renovation work underway. Do you have information about this?
Elliott Electric Supply Co. will be located at this location, 2646 S.E. Washington Blvd. According to the Community Development Department, construction is nearing completion. However, City staff have not been given a target date for opening.
What happened to that?
What happened to the car wash that was going to go in where the old hotel/Popeyes was going to go?
The Community Development Department has not received any permit applications or further information on this since SmitCo Eateries announced last July that the property in question, at 1300 S.E. Washington Blvd., once the site of the Sooner Motel, was under contract with Watershed Car Wash. The site had originally been planned for a Popeye’s restaurant after being purchased by the company in 2017. The project was on-again, off-again in the years leading up to the July announcement.