Highway 49 Rehabilitation Project In Auburn Delayed As Malfunctioning Traffic Sensors Cause Headache For Drivers
AUBURN (CBS13) — A Highway 49 rehabilitation project in Auburn is nearly done, but it's missing one last piece of the puzzle. After paving, updating drainage and adding sidewalks, crews have hit a roadblock.
Traffic sensor cameras meant to control the flow of traffic are currently inactive, frustrating drivers.
"It gives me a lot of good overtime to sit at these lights for 5-10 minutes at a time," said Kaycee June, who works as a delivery service driver.
Her job is to get the product to the customer on time.
"I have time commits. I'll think I have it in my head it will take 15 minutes. Try 35," said June. "It's super frustrating."
Caltrans spokesperson Raquel Borrayo said, "We also upgraded traffic signals to newer standards and installed a traffic camera sensor system."
Right now, that sensor system isn't working, which typically would recognize vehicles stuck at a turn signal or red light, then and change to enhance the flow of traffic.
So what's the problem? Caltrans said there's a card that sits inside these cabinets that activates the camera sensors, but the voltage inside the cabinets is too high and it's breaking the cards.
"In order to prevent them from being completely fried and not being able to work at all, we kind of took a pause, a step back and we're trying to figure out what the voltage issue is," Borrayo said.
The traffic lights do work, but they're in construction mode, which means the lights change at an equal rate between red yellow and green instead of changing based on traffic.
"You could be letting ghost cars go and there's a line of 200 people here. It makes no sense," June said. "They've been working on this for so long."
There isn't a timeline for when this issue will be fixed. In the meantime, Caltrans asks for patience and for drivers to follow the rules of the road regardless of how frustrating it may get.