UDOT crews work on a stoplight at the intersection of state Route 36 and Village Boulevard. The left turn light malfunctioned at the intersection, leaving motorists with a constant red light.
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Loading ...State road crews spent Wednesday afternoon replacing components of a traffic signal they say created a hazard for local motorists when it malfunctioned a few weeks ago.
The signal, located at the intersection of Village Blvd. and state Route 36, had a few of its pre-programmed east-bound “loops” or light cycles fail, said Dave Mount, a traffic signal maintenance supervisor for Utah Department of Transportation’s Region 2.
The malfunction occasionally caused the signal to get stuck on a red light for several cycles at a time.
According to a local resident who contacted the Transcript-Bulletin, Stansbury motorists had begun to ignore the signal and run the light in response to the ongoing problem.
Mount said maintenance workers made some adjustments to the signal to temporarily relieve the situation about two weeks ago, and that crews would be out to replace the signal with a new radar system on Wednesday.
“The problem is, once one loop starts going bad, all the others follow close behind it,” he said.
Giving the signal an all-new radar system was a preemptive measure to head off the potential for future problems, Mount explained.
Although UDOT recently installed new turn signals at that intersection during a routine upgrade project, Mount said the loop failures were unrelated to the construction.
“Loops fail all the time,” he said. “It was just weird that it happened while it was under construction.”
Because traffic signals do malfunction from time to time, Mount said residents who notice a problem should call UDOT’s traffic operations at 801-887-3700 to report potential hazards.
