Local

New state-of-the-art traffic center is going to make your commute easier

DUNWOODY, Ga. — The City of Dunwoody is revealing its state-of-the-art traffic control operation.

The City of Dunwoody’s new Traffic Control Center at Dunwoody City Hall is fully operational and connected to all 60 traffic signals within the city limits.

“Now we’re able to communicate with and adjust remotely all the signals in the city,” said Dunwoody Public Works Director Michael Smith. “Before this project, we could communicate with only 20 of our 60 signals.

The traffic control center uses cameras and computers to keep the morning commute running smoothly.

More than 100,000 people flood into the perimeter area each day to go to work and many more pass through Dunwoody on I-285 or side streets.

Any now all of the city’s intersections not only have sensors in road, but cameras up above, and usually someone monitoring it all that can change the traffic signals to keep everyone moving.

Dunwoody’s public works directors says the new system, paid for through local and federal grant and transportation money, got put to the test recently.

Police shut down lanes on I-285 and a ramp after an officer got drug during a chase.

That diverted traffic off the interstate, onto the city’s side streets.

“Then, we can come in here and look at those predominate directions of travel, say parallel to 285, and give those directions more green time and try to flush the traffic through,”Smith said,

The same thing happened after this major crash and big rig fire shutdown 285. The traffic control center activated, able to watch in real time, to keep everyone moving.

“Without the cameras and communication system, it would be kind of a best guess of who I need to give green time to,” a traffic engineer said.