Why are our traffic signals so prone to failure during storms?

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

Primary culprit: Texas' grid doesn't really prioritize undergrounding electrical lines. This makes the grid more prone to incidences. It is cheaper to build at least.



If you look at the bottom of this page, it looks like electrical maintenance is contracted out to The Levy Company, Inc. There was either a miscommunication between CTRMA and them, or the power draw or signal cabinet got fried and it took a weekend to get the replacements shipped in.
https://www.mobilityauthority.com/bu...s/procurements

Interesting. I literally called them on Saturday about it and they told me it wouldn’t be until Monday but yeah.

Are there any components in those cabinets that are prone to failure? I have read that they actually some pretty expensive computers that operate those signals and the avg signal costs north of $300k for basic functions. I’ve always wondered if they have to be reset or rebooted after a power failure to resume their operations hence the flashing red / amber lights or if they can resume automatically.

I also didn’t know we didn’t prioritize underground power. We have a lot more underground lines here than Atlanta did and Atlanta had many more taller trees which are capable of doing much more damage when they fall than ours do... for example the recent tropical storm Zeta there has left entire suburbs there without power for several days due to trees falling on power lines.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Interesting. I literally called them on Saturday about it and they told me it wouldn’t be until Monday but yeah.

Are there any components in those cabinets that are prone to failure? I have read that they actually some pretty expensive computers that operate those signals and the avg signal costs north of $300k for basic functions. I’ve always wondered if they have to be reset or rebooted after a power failure to resume their operations hence the flashing red / amber lights or if they can resume automatically.

I also didn’t know we didn’t prioritize underground power. We have a lot more underground lines here than Atlanta did and Atlanta had many more taller trees which are capable of doing much more damage when they fall than ours do... for example the recent tropical storm Zeta there has left entire suburbs there without power for several days due to trees falling on power lines.

There are a lot of location and project-specific factors in pricing, but $300-500K per signalized intersection is a safe estimate. I'm not particularly savvy on the wiring itself, so I couldn't really say if the signal cabinets have any protection against power surges, but they do have plenty of chips that are sensitive to said power surges.

My main point of reference for the lack of undergrounding is here in Colorado, where the vast majority of lines within the metro are underground. I think part of that is attributable to the prevalence of winter weather and wind. Anecdotally speaking, it does seem like I had to reset the microwave/stovetop clocks way more often in Austin than I ever have here.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

There are a lot of location and project-specific factors in pricing, but $300-500K per signalized intersection is a safe estimate. I'm not particularly savvy on the wiring itself, so I couldn't really say if the signal cabinets have any protection against power surges, but they do have plenty of chips that are sensitive to said power surges.

My main point of reference for the lack of undergrounding is here in Colorado, where the vast majority of lines within the metro are underground. I think part of that is attributable to the prevalence of winter weather and wind. Anecdotally speaking, it does seem like I had to reset the microwave/stovetop clocks way more often in Austin than I ever have here.

Yeah the brownouts here are insane. I ended up having to buy a UPS for my PC's and Servers.