Claremore Daily Progress

Business

October 18, 2009

Claremore to receive $250K in stimulus grant

Tom Fink

Oct. 18, 2009 — U.S. Congressman Dan Boren joined the City of Claremore and the Claremore Industrial Economic Development Authority (CIEDA) Thursday in announcing an upcoming $250,000 grant for upgrades to the traffic control systems throughout the city.

The quarter-million dollar grant was provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — or stimulus package — by the Department of Energy and Oklahoma Department of Commerce. Funding will be utilized along the SH-66 corridor to help implement a Traffic Optimization/Synchronization (TOS) System.

“I’m very pleased to announce this funding for the citizen’s of City of Claremore,” Boren said. “Local officials have been working hard over the past several years to improve safety, emergency response times, and traffic flow on Claremore’s transportation system.

“I believe economic development, business growth, and job creation are linked to having efficient transportation facilities, and these improvements will also help reduce maintenance costs for the city,” he continued. “ I remain committed to working with local government and business leaders to continue bringing civic infrastructure funding to Claremore in the future,” said Congressman Boren.

City of Claremore officials were equally enthusiastic about the announcement.

“CIEDA is excited with the news of funding approval for this very important project,” said Tim Hight, director of CIEDA. “The synchronization of traffic lights along Highway 66 will be a major benefit to residents and businesses, greatly improving our local quality of life and business climate.

“I am very excited about CIEDA and the City of Claremore receiving this grant, said Claremore City Manager Troy Powell. “The funds will help us resolve a long standing issue in our community and will improve both safety and travel times for those that use this important corridor.”

The first element of the TOS system includes the replacement of incandescent signal light bulbs with LED bulbs at 10 traffic signal locations, which will result in a savings for both maintenance and operations.

The City is also proposing to upgrade the signal controllers at seven key intersections.

The proposed signal controllers will be adaptive controllers that continuously monitor the intersection traffic and adapt the timing of the signals to the traffic that is at the intersection.

This signal controller system will be connected with a wireless network that will monitor all of the intersections and the adjacent train tracks. The adaptive traffic control system has been shown to improve intersection operations and reduce traffic delay. The grant was secured through a unique partnership between multiple organizations including CIEDA, City of Claremore, Congressman Boren, and Grand Gateway Economic Development Organization.

In addition to the $250,000 stimulus grant, $91,392 will also be contributed through local match funding from City of Claremore and Oklahoma Department of Transportation providing a project total of $341,392.

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