A flashing traffic light that shouldn’t have been flashing on a busy Bangor road was fixed Tuesday.
On Sunday, the city received a report that the signal at the intersection of Hogan Road and the ramps onto Interstate 95 was flashing instead of cycling from green to yellow to red, Public Works Director Aaron Huotari said.
The arrival of colder weather can cause periodic problems with traffic lights, Huotari said, but there do not currently appear to be similar issues in the city.
At least one other traffic light appeared to have a problem earlier this week. When a Bangor Daily News employee drove through the light at the intersection of Main Street and Bass Park Boulevard on Monday morning, it wasn’t cycling correctly, leaving some drivers stuck with red lights.
That issue wasn’t reported to the city until the Bangor Daily News raised it on Tuesday, Huotari said. But the city tested the light that day and couldn’t find any problems with it.
On Hogan Road, the light was flashing the way it does between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., with drivers from the northbound I-95 off-ramp seeing a red light, and drivers going north or south on Hogan Road seeing a yellow light, he said.
An electrical technician went out Sunday and reset the light, but there was a larger problem with its programming and it was flashing again on Tuesday morning, Huotari said. That prompted reports on social media of a traffic backup in the area.
A technician spent most of Monday programming a new controller for the light and then installed it Tuesday, Huotari said. After it was installed, he watched it cycle through to ensure everything was working correctly.
The controller with the problem will be sent back to the manufacturer to be rebuilt, Huotari said.
When temperatures drop, the public works department generally sees more issues with traffic lights, because lines can sag, which can then mess up their programming, Huotari said.
With intersections like Main Street and Bass Park Boulevard, a technician can access the light remotely and ensure the detection zones are set to cover the right areas to trigger the changes, he said.
People can report issues with Bangor’s traffic lights or other public works on the SeeClickFix website.
