To get ready for the upcoming holiday season, Way to Go Durham wants to express our gratitude for the City’s Sign and Signal Shop (SASS) workers and their efforts to keep Durham moving. This year, our crew remained dedicated to keeping Durham moving through storms, power outages, road closures, damages due to vehicle collisions, and day-to-day maintenance on our transportation devices. We express our utmost gratitude to our team for their hard work this past year as we share more about their roles and highlight key moments for you to do the same.
Meet the Crew and Learn About Their Impact:
The City’s SASS has 26 team members, 14 of whom work on the sign side and 12 on the signal side. The division’s key responsibilities include installing and maintaining street signs, traffic signals, pavement markings such as crosswalks and turn lanes, and more. This year’s work plan comprises 22,000 feet of stop bar/ crosswalk installations, 600 traffic pavement symbols, and 3,700 signs installed/replaced or repaired.
Explore the Job:
Together, this group maintains 466 signals. To maintain a traffic signal, our crews perform routine inspections, replace light bulbs, clean the signal cabinet, and adjust the signal timing as necessary. A key thing to note about our crew is that they work “on call, ” meaning they can promptly be notified at any hour to arrive and solve an emergency.
An example of a quick call is from the beginning of this month, where a vehicle crash caused significant damage to the intersection of Hope Valley Road and W. Cornwallis Drive. The crews rebuilt a traffic signal and coordinated with Duke Energy and the Durham Board of Elections to communicate the extent of necessary repairs and coordinate access to the voting site at Rogers-Herr Middle School.
Biking Improvements:
In June, crews installed a new bike lane along Fayetteville Street between Main Street and Ramseur Street. This section of Fayetteville Street will feature bike lanes, buffers, vertical separation with flex posts, and bike boxes at the signal, significantly enhancing cyclist safety and infrastructure.
Crews assisted the CMAQ contractor in installing the City’s first parking-protected bike lanes on Miami Blvd in August. These bike lanes are significant because they protect cyclists from being hit by a car door as they ride past. The bike lane rests on the passenger side with additional protective barriers.
Pedestrian Improvements:
In January, crews installed an illuminated yield to pedestrians sign at the I-85 Southbound SB Off Ramp and Hillandale Road intersection. This installation will allow pedestrians to push the button to alert drivers to stop and allow them to cross the roadway safely.
In February, crews installed pedestrian pushbuttons and high-visibility crosswalks along Washington Street and West Markham Avenue as part of the Capital Improvement Projects.
Storm Preparation and Recovery:
During Hurricane Debby in August, the crew managed road closures and installed emergency generators to keep traffic lights functioning during the storm. They also supported requests to help mitigate the damages from downed trees, flooding, and utility outages in work zones.
Our Sign and Signal Shop crew works with other departments and agencies to complete the necessary tasks to keep our City moving. This job is unpredictable, but our staff is prepared and dedicated to handling unexpected tasks, working through hurricanes and power outages, and managing daily operations, including traffic flow, impacts of vehicle collisions, and implementing road closures. To our team, thank you for your dedicated efforts to remain safe while working to keep our City safe and moving.