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Drivers in Pleasanton have noticed a new traffic signal operating in the city, a long-planned safety measure at the Bernal Avenue and Nevada Street intersection not far from downtown.
City officials informed commuters about the new stoplight via tweet last week and asked them to be cautious of the roadway changes while driving along the area. The necessity for the installation was initiated by the new roadway constructed for the Irby Ranch neighborhood with 87 houses plus the Sunflower Hill residential community.
“We outlined in our General Plan, what our future circulation is going to look like and then include roadway modifications, new roadways, and also new traffic signals,” city traffic engineer Mike Tassano told the Weekly.
“So when the roadway was constructed as part of the Irby Ranch project, we started the signal construction,” Tassano said. “They were already putting in a number of improvements, so we didn’t require Irby Ranch to put the signal in, we said we would do that on our own.”
“We needed a traffic signal just to allow that movement to and from there safely,” he added.
The housing project would add to the bulk of the traffic in the area and was a reason for the new signal at the intersection, according to Tassano.
“If you choose Vineyard or go to Stanley, the most direct route will be Nevada,” he said. “And so we knew that as soon as we built the roadway, we would get them to increase in those left turn vehicles trying to get on to Nevada Street.”
According to Tassano, the cost to construct and install a traffic signal cost around $750,000, with additional concrete work.
“This additional concrete work included reconstruction of the corners, pushing them out into the intersection to slow down the turning movements of vehicles and reduce the pedestrian crossing distances,” he said. “We also modified the median on Bernal to fit a second left turn lane to better accommodate the vehicle volume.”
Tassano said the project was funded by the city traffic impact fee fund, which is collected from new development projects used to pay for necessary circulation network improvements.
The process of installing, constructing and getting the stoplight functioning was riddled with challenges and the pandemic added to the delay.
“Because of the pandemic it took longer for PG&E to assign access points to begin the work,” Tassano said. “We waited for a while for them to provide us the location, because we have to put it in the plants to run conduit, run your power line all the way over to this pole, and get power from there.
The global semiconductor shortage during the pandemic caused difficulties not just in the industries such as auto and computer, but it disrupted the supply of traffic signal heads that use the microchips too.
“Due to the pandemic and the microchip processor (shortage),” he said, adding that other products likely “take priority over things like our traffic signal controllers, which is also a computer and our cameras, so everything needs those same chips.”
According to Tassano, the cameras in the signal heads detect the oncoming traffic, and are crucial to the optimal working of traffic signals.
Besides microchips, the delays exacerbated when the signal heads were stolen from the storage. As a solution to the stolen parts the department had to make do with replacing them with similar components.
“That’s why this traffic signal has yellow borders, around the traffic signal heads, that’s not normal installation for us,” Tassano said. “(They) are usually Caltrans only signals that have the yellow border.”
The new traffic signal is receiving mixed reaction from people frequenting the area. While some complain about the excessive number of stoplights, others are excited with this new addition, according to Tassano.
“That’s just one of those unfortunate things is that the traffic signals are a safety tool that we use to provide access,” he said. “I have heard from those (Irby Ranch) residents, and they’re pretty excited to have more direct access to their development.”
