Berrien County Road Department replacing several traffic signals; some traffic delays in the meantime

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Have you been extra annoyed by traffic signals around Berrien County lately? It turns out there’s a reason for that.

The Berrien County Road Department is currently working to replace a total of 13 signals in heavily travelled areas around the county. They’re being modernized with new wires, cabinets, software, cameras, and signal faces. Road department spokesperson Adri Boone tells us because it takes a while to complete all of these upgrades, some signals are not currently working in their usual way.

To best handle that until all the upgrades are completed where it can actually go through a sensor-related aspect to cycle, it’s best for it to do a timed cycle,” Boone said. “Obviously, the timed cycle might see traffic getting the green when there might not be traffic there because it is on a timed loop and not actually seeing where the traffic is, but it’s just a temporary situation.”

Boone says the signal upgrades should be finished by the end of July.

The road department is working to replace signals along Hilltop, Napier, Colfax, Union, Crystal, Pipestone, Mall Drive, Sodus Parkway, Red Arrow Highway, John Beers, and Sawyer Road right now. The plan is also to replace the signal in front of the Cook nuclear power plant on Red Arrow Highway next year.

The $875,000 project is being paid for with a combination of federal and county funds.

For now, if you find yourself waiting for an inordinate amount of time at a red light, know that the road department is working on it.

You can see a map of all the signals being worked on right here. They’re marked green once you select the layer for traffic signals.

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