Weekday drive-time traffic

on Ga. Highway 54 west of the Ga. Highway 74 intersection is routinely

clogged as motorists rush into Peachtree City to work in the morning and

out of the city to head home in the evenings.

Although a fiber optic timing

system is used to keep traffic moving on Hwy. 54, the mass of vehicles

can "overload" the system, according to Steve Blackston, district

signal engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation.

"At times it comes to

a complete halt because you reach a saturation point where the road cannot

hold more people than it has," Blackston explained. The two-lane

bridge over the CSX railroad track also slows things down considerably,

he added.

The timing system links the

traffic light at hwys. 54 and 74 to the lights at Huddleston Road, Planterra

Way (which also serves the new entrance to the Home Depot and Wal-Mart)

and MacDuff Parkway, Blackston said.

There are several different

timing sequence patterns employed for different times of the day, optimized

to benefit traffic heading into Peachtree City in the morning and out

of Peachtree City in the afternoon, Blackston said. There are also different

timing sequences for Saturdays and Sundays, he added.

The timing sequences are checked

about once every month and evaluated for changes on an annual basis, Blackston

explained. Sometimes the system is tweaked when necessary, and if the

matter becomes complicated then a special traffic timing team out of Atlanta

is called in to help with the adjustments, Blackston said.

In case the timing system goes

down for some reason, each traffic light is also individually timed so

traffic can keep moving, Blackston said. That's the only time the lights

can be "tripped" by vehicles on side streets, Blackston added.

The ultimate goal is always

to keep traffic moving on Hwy. 54, Blackston said.

"Highway 54 is our main

line," Blackston said. "Everything works around Hwy. 54 ...

that's where the traffic is."

In the next year or so, the

DOT will replace the traffic light at hwys. 54 and 74 with new signals

since the current equipment is quite old, Blackston added.

"It's not out of date,

but it's getting close to it," Blackston said.

The DOT tries to respond quickly

to specific complaints about traffic light synchronization but only has

eight employees to do that for its 31-county district, Blackston explained.

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