TxDOT working on fix for Hwy. 16 lights

Traffic lights set to flash at the intersection of Elm Street and Brazos Street will be repaired soon as the Texas Department of Transportation awaits the materials to complete the fix.

TxDOT Graham Area Engineer Zach Husen said the plan is to make the repair of the lights once the components arrive and reset the signal to operate correctly. 

“The traffic section in Wichita Falls has components ordered for the camera sensors at that signal, and they should be in any day now,” Husen said. “...When they broke here about a month ago, they set it to cycle and it was cycling too fast. I had them adjust it a couple times and it just wasn't performing the way it needed to. We were getting a lot of complaints, and there was a lot of delay right there.”

It was Thursday, Jan. 9 when snow and sleet hit Graham and the surrounding area, and the lights were set to flash as a precautionary safety measure.

“There wasn't anything with the weather that made it go like that,” Husen said. “That was the timing that I pushed it to flash so that we would be able to move traffic through there during that storm if we got ice or if we needed to pre-treat (the road). I didn't want people to have to slam on their brakes right there at the bottom of that hill.”

The TxDOT area engineer said the light has been an ongoing concern for the department due to its location.

“A lot of it has to do with the angle of the intersection and where the sun is in the sky during a couple times in the year,” Husen said. “...We've left it to flash for a while now, but it's not going to stay like that forever. We're going to get them to get those components installed and ...hopefully this fix will get us where that thing operates correctly.”