NCDOT and Chapel Hill Fund Traffic Signal Fiber

According to the Chapel Hill eNews, the NC Department of Transportation and the Town of Chapel Hill will share the cost of “rehabilitation and expansion of the traffic signal system serving Chapel Hill and Carrboro.” Part of this project includes the replacement of old copper wire with fiber optic communication cable. This means hopefully sometime in 2011 we’ll have a fiber network to deliver broadband Internet connections to people via wireless.

From the Town of Chapel Hill eNews: (subscribe here)

- Rehabilitation and Expansion of Traffic Signal System: The Council approved a plan for the rehabilitation and expansion of the traffic signal system serving Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The $5 million project with the NC Department of Transportation requires a local cost-share of $450,000.

The State recently informed Town engineers that the project funding schedule has moved up two years earlier to 2009. A tentative schedule calls for project design this fall, construction in April 2009, and completion in 2011.

In addition to replacing obsolete equipment and old copper wire communications system, the Town has set aside an additional $500,000 of capital funds to include fiber optic communication cable in the system upgrade. The project could help ensure that the Council’s vision of universal broadband services throughout Chapel Hill becomes a reality.

At the Town’s request, the upgrade will also include closed-circuit television equipment at selected locations, new system detectors, pedestrian countdown displays, replacement or upgrade of existing cabinets and controllers, new or revised signal phasing, emergency vehicle preemption at selected locations, bicycle activated loops at selected locations, and transit priority on selected corridors.