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Accident-prone crossing now has traffic signals

Accident-prone Plantation Drive gets a red light

BY HUGH MUIR

Date published: 1/13/2009

BY HUGH MUIR

The southern Stafford intersection of Plantation Drive and Lyons Boulevard/Gladstone Drive got a traffic light last week, a project driven by a rash of accidents and the pending construction of a new library on one of its corners.

The first traffic to move through the new lights appeared to go smoothly. Occasionally a hasty driver would beep his horn behind a stopped vehicle. One SUV pulling a trailer nosed out of Lyons before the light turned green and then swung widely to miss traffic that had not adjusted to the new pattern.

A flashing-yellow-light system went into effect Jan. 5, to warn regular drivers in the area that their driving habits were about to be changed. Normally, the "flash" is activated 72 hours before the new traffic-control system begins.

The switch to activate the multi-light system was thrown last Thursday by a team from Brothers Signal Co., based in Leesburg, which built it for the county. After some tweaking--the timing of the four-way system had to be fine-tuned, and one of the brand-new yellow lights didn't work--the system went into service Friday.

"We never start a new traffic control at the beginning of a work week," said Paul Balderson, the Virginia Department of Transportation's manager of northern region operations. "We don't want to surprise too many people."

Balderson, formerly based in Culpeper, has worked out of the Falmouth office for the past year. The 60-day construction job, designed by VDOT following federal specifications, cost the county some $160,000.

The signal project reflected concerns over the accident history at the intersection, Balderson said. Although early studies had indicated there was not enough traffic to warrant putting a light there, a number of factors changed the situation.

In recent years, major housing developments north and south of Plantation were completed: England Run and Falls Run both poured traffic onto Plantation at or near the Lyons/Gladstone crossing. Also, the opening two years ago of Exit 136 on Interstate 95 fed traffic into a rural residential road system that eventually increased the load on Plantation.

Construction of the light system began last November and ended during the December holiday period. On each corner of the intersection massive stainless-steel poles and their cantilevered arms went up, anchored in the ground by solid concrete cylinders 3 feet in diameter and 12 feet deep. Three of the signal arms project over the roads for 65 feet. The third, over Gladstone, goes 40 feet. All are 20 feet above the roadway. The arms support "several hundred pounds" of lights and signs, said Paul Balderson, manager of northern region operations for VDOT (each light weighs some 60 pounds). The 18-inch-diameter poles and the arms are hollow, made of -inch-thick stainless steel. "They can last 20 to 30 years," Balderson said. The lights are no longer the single-bulb fixtures of decades past but are clusters of red, yellow or green light-emitting diodes. "If one LED goes out, you've got plenty left to be visible," Balderson said, "although you may notice an occasional black spot where a single one has failed." Individual replacements can be made quickly, he said. The intersection also has two walk/don't-walk light systems, one for Plantation and one for Lyons, with number-countdown lights that warn pedestrians how much time they have to cross (a maximum of 20 seconds). Among those benefiting will be students, since the intersection is four blocks from T. Benton Gayle Middle School. The "walk" signs also serve those attending Beth Sholom Temple, on the northeast corner of the intersection, as well as future users of the library.

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Date published: 1/13/2009

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