DOT: Pacific Palisades Traffic Signal Upgrades On Schedule For Completion

Traffic control officers will remain posted at various intersections along Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades as the city wraps up a $3.8 million project to the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control system, or ATSAC. According to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation last week, the work is on pace for completion at the end of August.

However, traffic signal work and shut downs will occur over the next week.

Kyle Flake, LADOT engineer involved in the ATSAC project, said Pacific Palisades has 29 traffic signals and most are on Sunset Boulevard between Castellamarre Drive and Kenter Avenue.

"Every intersection in Pacific Palisades will be connected and operating within this system," he said. "We will be adding five cameras to monitor traffic at some of the most crucial intersections."

The community council from DOT engineers, learning that ATSAC utilizes a network of sensors embedded in city streets that measure the number of vehicles, vehicle speed and the level of congestion centered around 4,000 of Los Angeles' more than 4,300 intersections with traffic signals. Computer systems as well as human operators work to detect traffic flow and ultimately controls signal timing to allow traffic to flow better where the system is installed, according to Flake

The project, which started in 2011, cost $6 million of state and city funds, and Palisades intersections accounted for $3.8 million of those funds.

Flake said the DOT's main reason for upgrading the system is to have all of the intersections within Pacific Palisades connected to their ATSAC system. Based on field conditions, the existing traffic signal equipment is "really old," Flake added, and some of it may have been installed 50 years ago. 

For more information on how the ATSAC system works, click here.