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LED Signs Tested On U.S. 19
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Published: January 19, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - U.S. 19 drivers soon can look up and see the light – the light of an overhead LED message board, that is.
Traffic advisories or warnings are envisioned for the huge signs once installation work is completed on the project for the Florida Department of Transportation.
Tests began this week of the large sign over the northbound lanes near Ridge Road, Bob Reck, the traffic operations manager for Pasco County, confirmed.
Motorists might have seen the test message, "DUI Decide Before You Drive." A twin light-emitting-diode message sign over the southbound lanes is being tested as well.
Transcore crews are still working on installing the fiber optic lines and other necessary gear, Kristen Carson, a spokeswoman for the District 7 DOT office in Tampa, explained.
Carson hopes much of the wiring and other hardware should be done by March. Calibration and tests of the system should be done by May when the signs would go into operation.
Fiber optic lines will carry the signals from the county's traffic operations center at the West Pasco Government Center on Little Road to the overhead signs on U.S. 19.
Once all the gear is in place, county traffic operations staff will control the messages flashed onto the signs, Reck said. There's still a lot to do at the traffic control center to tie in the communications network, Reck said.
The message boards are very similar to ones already in operation in the Tampa area on I-275 and other interstate highways.
The signs sometimes would display the estimated time it might take for a driver to reach the next major exit. During crashes or other traffic disruptions, the signs could display detour information.
The signs on U.S. 19 are one part of the state transportation agency's ITS, or Intelligent Transportation System, project.
Crews have already installed modern traffic signals with many more timing patterns that can be adjusted to balance traffic flow.
ITS incorporates a few dozen cameras posted alongside the highway to monitor actual traffic so emergency crews can be dispatched faster to the scene of wrecks.
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