Green Means Go in Holland
The City of Holland, Michigan needed to trade out an old traffic signal at the intersection of 32nd Street and Ottawa Avenue. The existing equipment was outdated, with the wiring starting to fail and not much life left in the equipment. Windemuller got the call to remove and replace the old traffic signal setup—including the signal itself, as well as the controller, the traffic signal span, the intersection’s pedestrian signals, and all associated wiring.
The Challenge
32nd Street is one of Holland’s main east-west roads, and while the 32nd/Ottawa intersection is a fair distance southwest of the downtown area, it’s still an intersection that sees a considerable amount of traffic. As such, handling the removal and replacement work at the site while minimizing traffic interruptions was the main challenge of this project. The City of Holland also wanted the project done by a hard deadline that our team needed to keep. Finally, Carrier & Gable—the company that provides the traffic signal equipment we use for projects like this one—had recently switched to a new manufacturer for traffic signal controllers. That change-up meant our team wasn’t as familiar with the equipment as we normally would be.
The Solution
Carrier & Gable helped us by providing in-house, handson training with our team. The training was invaluable, as it familiarized us with the new controller technology and reduced the on-the-job learning curve. In addition, we also completed significant pre-job planning and pre-installation preparation, to ensure everything was ready prior to disrupting traffic.
When the time came to handle the actual remove-and-replace part of the project, we already had the traffic signal assembled and the technology mastered. We switched the intersection to a temporary four-way stop while we worked, then moved quickly in putting up the span installing the new technology, and cutting over from the old traffic signal to the new one. Ultimately, we were ultra-efficient – beating the City of Holland’s deadline and resuming regular traffic at the 32nd Street/Ottawa Avenue intersection a few days ahead of schedule.
