I agree, but please don’t run red lights even if you think no one is watching, cuz you never know if someone is going to speed through from the cross street. It happens. 🥴
The IES Lighting Handbook and the 2014 National Electrical Code, Article 100 (originally the 2004 NEC), define a luminaire as, “a complete lighting unit consisting of a lamp or lamps together with the parts designed to distribute the light, to position and protect the lamps, and to connect the lamps to the power supply.”
Excellent video. The synchronization of construction changeover from the old improvements to the new construction is always an exciting process. Maintaining a safe environment for the workers as well as the impatient public is a nerve wracking experience. Well done with having the spare equipment when the inevitable malfunctions occur. I love watching your videos as a retired civil engineer/project manager. I worked on many traffic signal designs/installations/modifications. In California, the full 8 phase mast arm traffic signals are well north of your $200k cost.
As someone in the industry i was also surprised at the $200k cost when currently the material alone for an intersection is about that. Hell the mast arms alone can easily be 30k+
Sure am glad i am retired from that stuff. Worked for a city for 24 years mostly doing signals. Very interesting work altho we had nearly all Type 170 controllers. Very little NEMA stuff, only some of what we maintained for the county. Been out of it now for over 20 years and certainly see a lot of new equipment and periferals that keep coming out. We had cameras but no radar detectors and we were still using older 170 controllers and Bitrans software. Keep up the good work.
New intersection level luminaries look great. Never liked using high mast for intersection lighting. Mast arms look cleaner than spans any day of the week. Great work
With those new stop lines and all, and the new lights, it looks MUCH cleaner than before! Wonderful work! Thanks for filming your POV, it was very cool to see!
Former truck driver here. I always intensely dislike the double left turns at this intersection going in the direction of the Flying J and my company's terminal. Those left turn arrows always took forever to change. I could be the only vehicle waiting for that signal to give me left turn and it did not seem to matter.
In my city, pretty much all of the lights are masts. They are probably even more expensive since they are mostly arrows instead of the typical round light. Depending on the intersection, they'll have anywhere from 4 to 7 different lights. They are hung horizontally rather than vertically. Another huge difference is that instead of having one set of light for each lane, there's only one set of lights for all of the lanes.
My city just recently started doing the flashing yellow arrow now and they’re replacing the mast arms that aren’t even 15 years old. Some intersections they replace the dog house with a flashing yellow arrow but most of 5 year old traffic lights getting replaced here.
I admit I had never given thought about the skilled people who install, maintain, and repair all the traffic signals. Thank you for your work and videos. How does one study and get a job doing this? Electrician trades?
I always wonder how they put up and take down the string light (aka construction mode lights) as well how the signals are "cut over" when switching them over. The radar system is great as it can "see" the traffic as oppose to the induction loops - problem is does the system work in the cold and snow of northern states?
I work as Traffic Control in the PNW, this would’ve been a full shut down to one lane and full flagger set on each road. Really interesting to see how these key infrastructure jobs are done across the country!
It's interesting to see how people do it. Over where I am the contractors don't use a grinder to cut the old spans down. They just take off all the old signals and cut the old span down with bolt cutters. Also are you sure that this signal was only worth around $200K? I once saw the bids from MDOT were public and the bid for a signal replacement in my area was $517K for a new Box-Span intersection with backplates, 40FT strain poles (6 bolt) and new sidewalk ramps.
"Some people might have questions on why we have two Click 650s in here..." Respectfully sir, I don't even know what is a Click 650. If you told me you needed 10 of them, I would nod my head and simply agree with you. Fascinating stuff though, but I dont have the faintest clue of what I'm looking at!
The controller logic needs to get smarter in using advance detection to coordinate smooth flow of traffic and minimizing wait times. So often I see these modern intersections cause more delay than a simple timer based system!
Is there a switch inside the panel to make all the light heads red? like when the wires came down? Also is there a function to freeze the light at a certain phase? (Like during a large event where you want to freeze the left turn arrow at green phase manually to let all the cars out?) BTW I enjoy your videos.
There is a Stop time Switch inside the cabinet. When that switch is flipped the controller timing is frozen. During the 1-2 second of all red interval he flipped the stop time switch.
The town I lived at in Florida had two major expenses that took %90 of the Budget. The one traffic light, payment to the attorney the good ol boy network hired. He's the attorney for Enron who was disbarred, but still allowed to practice in the corrupt swamp called Florida.
@@Celica-86 Dunno man, I cruised the gov auction site earlier and some items were going for damn near nothing (though theyre auction style, $10 increments, but still, the potential...)
Cities typically only maintain their existing equipment. I.E. changing lights/LEDs. Major installations/modification work is by traffic signal construction companies under a construction contract with the City/County/State DOT.
Scratching my head why my previous comment was deleted... Anyway, I worked as a construction inspector for a state DOT many years ago, and we used 170 controllers exclusively. They were always fitted with a STOP TIME switch, and I found that to be very handy on occasion. I noticed a similar switch inside the cabinet here, and wish NEMA controllers all had them as standard. Just my opinion. Subscribed.
How long should the mast arms last? I live in central FL and they seem to replace mast arm installations after 20 or 30 years of service. I would think they should last a lot longer.
Illinois (IDOT) started using radar detection instead of loops for side streets of main roads at intersections. There ended up being a lot of issues with them not detecting stopped cars, so they swapped to video instead for side streets. Using only radar for an entire intersection is a foreign concept to me. Are you experiencing issues of non-detection with stopped cars that IDOT was having?
I'm guessing Siemens stopped putting their logo on the newer m60 systems for a reason and did the Yunex spinoff instead lol. Seems like Siemens is working better here.
Poles that can take a car, leds the size of your head, 2-3 wires per led head (that's 9 wires for a standard 3-head red-yellow-green setup), 2-4 3" underground conduits between each poll (minimum 6 long conduits total), manholes at each corner, and controller cabinets that are $10,000 to $20,000. Lighting wiring is usually run in its own 2" conduits. This is the standard in MN, at least.
Question: I have been watching you for a while, But trucks with green flashing beacons? what is that all about? Here in the UK, only doctors on call can have green beacons (Even then you don't see many about). I have seen you with lights in "flash" but what is that for/what does it mean, Like I said, I am here in the UK and we don't have that either. Thanks😃
Green is getting pretty common these days. Our highway trucks have yellow and green beacons. If there is a problem with the controller or they are working on it, it goes into flash so there is still some form of traffic control.
Allowable colors on vehicles vary by state. For example in NY Fire and Police can only run red forward facing, while in Mass. fire runs red and white and police run blue and white. Utility/construction also varies by state, most common is amber.
Flashing red lights is an all four way stop controlled intersection. Stop and proceed with caution. Not too bad for single lane roads. It is more interesting when you have three lanes in each direction with left turn lanes too.
@@mtmmac1 -- In my state, only law enforcement are supposed to have blue (but I see blue on some fire trucks and some Uber drivers as well, so not well enforced, I guess). Red should only be on emergency vehicles and school buses, but they count tow trucks as emergency vehicles if they are in the police rotation for police calls. Anyone may display amber if they believe their vehicle might be a hazard for others, and it defined in the law that it is the driver's discretion -- nobody may second-guess that decision. Green is not defined in the law here, so we see it on fire chief vehicles, security company vehicles, the van owned by a local credit union, and my friend Tyler, who simply likes it, I think.
Do you all refurbish / reuse the old signals? Do they just "trash" them? Are they sold off? I've always wondered what happens to most of them. I bought a signal years ago from a guy who lived next to an intersection up in Maryland - he told me the crew was just doing to trash them, so he asked to have the old signals, and the crew just handed them over. His story was believable because the intersection in front of his house had all new signals and the crew was long gone... Years later I witnessed crews in Florida just cut the wire - dropping signals and wire straight to the ground (causing damage to the old signals) when turning on a new intersection.
@@Trafficlightdoctor I'm a pretty fair medic and firefighter, & today I learned about the breathtaking cost of traffic signals, but I don't know anything about the costs of these things. I do have to wonder about safety and if there's any increase or decrease in one over the other.
It's kinda weird to see the south installing permanent light posts. I know the south hates taxes so much that they don't want to fund permanent light fixtures, that they prefer the ugly rope fixtures. This looks strange! Well done! 😂😂
Pretty cool video, but this intersection is the epitome of bad traffic engineering. Traffic engineers will tell you it's actually the epitome of good traffic engineering because it allows large amounts of vehicles to travel at high speeds though an intersection. Okay, but is that really our highest priority in transportation? How about reducing accidents, decreasing congestion, and supporting productive land-use? These types of roads and their intersections are over-engineered, dangerous, congestion-generating, expensive pieces of infrastructure that subsidize large businesses and bankrupt municipal governments. And it's sad to see them still being pursued in so many parts of the country.
"A friendly reminder to never run a red light in front of a cop" had me laughing
Saw someone do something stupid in front of a cop tonight. Cop saw it too.
@@TheRealScooterGuy lucky, i just spent the last five hours without power
I agree, but please don’t run red lights even if you think no one is watching, cuz you never know if someone is going to speed through from the cross street. It happens. 🥴
You activated the all-way stop! Very rare but useful in this scenario!
Fun fact, “luminaire” isn’t in MS Word’s dictionary, so a lot of user manuals talk about how to “install your new luminary”
The IES Lighting Handbook and the 2014 National Electrical Code, Article 100 (originally the 2004 NEC), define a luminaire as, “a complete lighting unit consisting of a lamp or lamps together with the parts designed to distribute the light, to position and protect the lamps, and to connect the lamps to the power supply.”
Excellent video. The synchronization of construction changeover from the old improvements to the new construction is always an exciting process. Maintaining a safe environment for the workers as well as the impatient public is a nerve wracking experience. Well done with having the spare equipment when the inevitable malfunctions occur. I love watching your videos as a retired civil engineer/project manager. I worked on many traffic signal designs/installations/modifications. In California, the full 8 phase mast arm traffic signals are well north of your $200k cost.
As someone in the industry i was also surprised at the $200k cost when currently the material alone for an intersection is about that. Hell the mast arms alone can easily be 30k+
A detailed series on the installation of a new intersection would be great! Poles, light heads, sensors, cable runs, cabinet, lines, etc.
Industrial equipment is incredibly reliable and always works great - except it breaks every time someone touches it :)
Always glad to see a swapover from a wire hung intersection to a pole mounted one. The wire hing ones always looked trashy to me.
When it's tax dollars, who cares which (wire or pole) is cheaper. More expensive is better.
Sure am glad i am retired from that stuff. Worked for a city for 24 years mostly doing signals. Very interesting work altho we had nearly all Type 170 controllers. Very little NEMA stuff, only some of what we maintained for the county. Been out of it now for over 20 years and certainly see a lot of new equipment and periferals that keep coming out.
We had cameras but no radar detectors and we were still using older 170 controllers and Bitrans software.
Keep up the good work.
New intersection level luminaries look great. Never liked using high mast for intersection lighting. Mast arms look cleaner than spans any day of the week. Great work
With those new stop lines and all, and the new lights, it looks MUCH cleaner than before! Wonderful work! Thanks for filming your POV, it was very cool to see!
I have to imagine there are better ways for a city to spend $200,000 than new lights for a working intersection
It’s crazy that the metal the lights sit on is 140k extra.
The new light set up is safer and cleaner for sure but 140k extra seems like a lot.
Love the warning green lights on your trucks
Green warning lights seem like a bad idea, since green means go. Yellow would make more sense.
We use green and white. Down here there’s so so much building going on honestly the ambers just blend in with everything else
@@Welgeldiguniekalias Green is the brightest and easiest to see in bad conditions and it is what the snow plows use around here
@@Welgeldiguniekaliasgreen means go but when it's on a vehicle its easier to tell there's something there
@@Welgeldiguniekalias Green is visible from further away. Some states like DE are pairing amber and green so they are seen sooner and folks react.
This was a well done video. Very cool seeing the spanwire being cut down.
Yes! I spent my career only seeing mast arm signals. It was exciting to see the span wires cut.
Really cool video, great format and a perfect length for the content. A lot of cool information on how these are setup and work. 🐾🐾
At 1:34, for a second I thought that doubles trailer was about to obliterate the stop lights haha.
7:30 never seen guys run on a construction site before. Dedicated crew right there lol
Love the how the guys quickly grabbed the wires and ran out of the way. There’s always stupid people that don’t pay attention why’ll driving.
Almost at 100K!! Fascinating content keep up the great stuff
So close! Thank you!
Former truck driver here. I always intensely dislike the double left turns at this intersection going in the direction of the Flying J and my company's terminal. Those left turn arrows always took forever to change. I could be the only vehicle waiting for that signal to give me left turn and it did not seem to matter.
That looks like the junction of US 49 & US 80 & MS 468. Awesome job!
Great video. Love the detailed and long form format.
@@bostonie3653 more to come!
Amazing how complex it all is. Thanks for posting this.
Love the longer form videos. Keep them coming.
In my city, pretty much all of the lights are masts. They are probably even more expensive since they are mostly arrows instead of the typical round light. Depending on the intersection, they'll have anywhere from 4 to 7 different lights. They are hung horizontally rather than vertically. Another huge difference is that instead of having one set of light for each lane, there's only one set of lights for all of the lanes.
My city just recently started doing the flashing yellow arrow now and they’re replacing the mast arms that aren’t even 15 years old. Some intersections they replace the dog house with a flashing yellow arrow but most of 5 year old traffic lights getting replaced here.
Thank you for helping our world run smoothly. You guys do jobs that people never think about.
My grandfather did signal work before he passed several years ago; it's cool seeing how this work is done from the perspective of an employee.
Always wondered what the all red on all sides was used for
I admit I had never given thought about the skilled people who install, maintain, and repair all the traffic signals. Thank you for your work and videos. How does one study and get a job doing this? Electrician trades?
Love the share of knowledge. If they had demonstrated this job in school I would have pursued.
Can you do a tour of your truck and the equipment you bring?
Watching from Chicago! 🇺🇸
I always wonder how they put up and take down the string light (aka construction mode lights) as well how the signals are "cut over" when switching them over. The radar system is great as it can "see" the traffic as oppose to the induction loops - problem is does the system work in the cold and snow of northern states?
I work as Traffic Control in the PNW, this would’ve been a full shut down to one lane and full flagger set on each road. Really interesting to see how these key infrastructure jobs are done across the country!
Never knew how fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
How do you feed the cables for the signal heads through the mast arms?
A pearl of an intersection.
This is fascinating I’d love to have worked in this industry!
I know thyat area well. They are installing new insurance cameras also.
It's interesting to see how people do it. Over where I am the contractors don't use a grinder to cut the old spans down. They just take off all the old signals and cut the old span down with bolt cutters. Also are you sure that this signal was only worth around $200K? I once saw the bids from MDOT were public and the bid for a signal replacement in my area was $517K for a new Box-Span intersection with backplates, 40FT strain poles (6 bolt) and new sidewalk ramps.
City of Centennial Colorado did the switch at rush hour on Tuesday on an arterial - mind bottling why they’d do it on a weekday at 4pm - what a mess
"Some people might have questions on why we have two Click 650s in here..."
Respectfully sir, I don't even know what is a Click 650. If you told me you needed 10 of them, I would nod my head and simply agree with you.
Fascinating stuff though, but I dont have the faintest clue of what I'm looking at!
Ok you got me.
Im hooked.
The controller logic needs to get smarter in using advance detection to coordinate smooth flow of traffic and minimizing wait times. So often I see these modern intersections cause more delay than a simple timer based system!
Is there a switch inside the panel to make all the light heads red? like when the wires came down? Also is there a function to freeze the light at a certain phase? (Like during a large event where you want to freeze the left turn arrow at green phase manually to let all the cars out?) BTW I enjoy your videos.
Many cabinets have an Auto/Hand switch and a pendant/button that allows police/etc to cycle through the phases manually.
There is a Stop time Switch inside the cabinet. When that switch is flipped the controller timing is frozen. During the 1-2 second of all red interval he flipped the stop time switch.
Great video. Thanks for posting this. Have a nice day.
What are the benefits of switch from over hang to boom arm lights?
I know that intersection!!! I pass through there for work when I go there. I knew it look familiar.
The town I lived at in Florida had two major expenses that took %90 of the Budget.
The one traffic light, payment to the attorney the good ol boy network hired.
He's the attorney for Enron who was disbarred, but still allowed to practice in the corrupt swamp called Florida.
It's never too late to move out of Florida! 😂
@@mangos2888 left in 2015, it's funny how different the world is from the alternative reality of Florida.
@@DeadCat-42 Congratulations! 🎊🎊
Wish I can get one of those old signal heads from the old intersection and probably the controller too
maybe they show up on auction?
@@LeonSteelpaw I know they probably want top dollar for it.
@@Celica-86
Dunno man, I cruised the gov auction site earlier and some items were going for damn near nothing (though theyre auction style, $10 increments, but still, the potential...)
@@LeonSteelpaw Damn
Any crew replacing old heads will most likely give them away. I do the same work and throw away tons of signal gear.
We have one just like that here in Conroe TX with the radars.... Except the city never uses them. It's on a goddamn timer, and has been for YEARS 😂
How do you get into something like this? Are there companies that do this or do you work for the city?
Cities typically only maintain their existing equipment. I.E. changing lights/LEDs. Major installations/modification work is by traffic signal construction companies under a construction contract with the City/County/State DOT.
What was the process to make all sides red when you cut down the span wire? That was interesting
I’m guessing he flipped the Stop time Switch during the Red Clearance interval.
Scratching my head why my previous comment was deleted... Anyway, I worked as a construction inspector for a state DOT many years ago, and we used 170 controllers exclusively. They were always fitted with a STOP TIME switch, and I found that to be very handy on occasion. I noticed a similar switch inside the cabinet here, and wish NEMA controllers all had them as standard. Just my opinion. Subscribed.
Must of been something automatic from UA-cam. And yes we have external stop time switches! I use it all the time for holding up traffic!
This is why we need more roundabouts
How long should the mast arms last? I live in central FL and they seem to replace mast arm installations after 20 or 30 years of service. I would think they should last a lot longer.
Bro are you from pearl, I live in the area and have been seeing your videos for months! Glad to see you’re local!
Where are you finding mast arm signals for $200k? Where I'm at in metro ATL span wire is about $300k and mast arm is upwards of $500k.
Holy crap that was interesting thanks for posting
Every citizen of Pearl Mississippi is going to be floored tomorrow morning when they see this.
Whats the advantage of a $200,000 dollar light compared to $60,000 one? (Besides a 233% increase in price)
How does the pedestrian phase work?
Illinois (IDOT) started using radar detection instead of loops for side streets of main roads at intersections. There ended up being a lot of issues with them not detecting stopped cars, so they swapped to video instead for side streets. Using only radar for an entire intersection is a foreign concept to me. Are you experiencing issues of non-detection with stopped cars that IDOT was having?
Is the controller pre programmed or does someone write the traffic sequence and then you load it?
Very interesting and educational.
I'm guessing Siemens stopped putting their logo on the newer m60 systems for a reason and did the Yunex spinoff instead lol. Seems like Siemens is working better here.
Build back better. Thanks, Joe!
So that’s how signal replacements work
That BIU Number 9 and 10 on the Click 650 is incorrect. It should be BIU number 1 and 2, at BIU Address 9 and 10 according to the TS2 specification.
Yo I want a old traffic light I have been trying to get one for ever but to much money can I get a old one
My first thought was: "Those things cost that much!?"
Industrial equipment have a very high tolerance levels. That and the cost of maintenance and warranty along with other stuff.
Poles that can take a car, leds the size of your head, 2-3 wires per led head (that's 9 wires for a standard 3-head red-yellow-green setup), 2-4 3" underground conduits between each poll (minimum 6 long conduits total), manholes at each corner, and controller cabinets that are $10,000 to $20,000. Lighting wiring is usually run in its own 2" conduits. This is the standard in MN, at least.
Why would they spend double to replace the old lights ?
its annoying even these new intersections cant even detect my bike even on bike lanes so annoying
Brought to you by President Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Enjoy and you're welcome.
surprised you guys run green flashing lights on the trucks . my state is amber, green is security only although most security runs amber
Question: I have been watching you for a while, But trucks with green flashing beacons? what is that all about? Here in the UK, only doctors on call can have green beacons (Even then you don't see many about).
I have seen you with lights in "flash" but what is that for/what does it mean, Like I said, I am here in the UK and we don't have that either.
Thanks😃
Green is getting pretty common these days. Our highway trucks have yellow and green beacons.
If there is a problem with the controller or they are working on it, it goes into flash so there is still some form of traffic control.
@@Dfk429S9fo3 I have not seen green strobes aside from fire trucks and ambulance to mark the starboard side of the vehicle
Allowable colors on vehicles vary by state. For example in NY Fire and Police can only run red forward facing, while in Mass. fire runs red and white and police run blue and white. Utility/construction also varies by state, most common is amber.
Flashing red lights is an all four way stop controlled intersection. Stop and proceed with caution. Not too bad for single lane roads. It is more interesting when you have three lanes in each direction with left turn lanes too.
@@mtmmac1 -- In my state, only law enforcement are supposed to have blue (but I see blue on some fire trucks and some Uber drivers as well, so not well enforced, I guess). Red should only be on emergency vehicles and school buses, but they count tow trucks as emergency vehicles if they are in the police rotation for police calls. Anyone may display amber if they believe their vehicle might be a hazard for others, and it defined in the law that it is the driver's discretion -- nobody may second-guess that decision. Green is not defined in the law here, so we see it on fire chief vehicles, security company vehicles, the van owned by a local credit union, and my friend Tyler, who simply likes it, I think.
I found the inflation! Lmao, $200k for a pole and a bunch of LEDs...
Don't leave us hanging! What was wrong with the new controller?
For that matter, why switch from the older equipment? (Grandpa always said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.")
@@TheRealScooterGuyit probably wasn’t all that reliable
Who knew Pearl was leading the way in technology?
I was going to get the $200,000 one but I’m so glad I watched this video because I think I only need the $66,000 one
cool !!
in my city they change all the traffic lights to flash at about 11:30pm, is that normal?
So what do the new lights do that the old one's didn't?
Hell yeah
Newbie, ❤ the way u refer to the box as “she” :) just as some men talk about their cars
How do you get this job? Did you go to college?
nice 👍
This is what they are doing in Sherwood Oregon.
The radar in the intersections. Can/are the telling the police where you are. Im in downtown Atlanta. I think homeland sec, is doing that. Thanks
Radars?
I love this channel i❤ traffic light like subscribe so he can get to 1 mil
Do you all refurbish / reuse the old signals? Do they just "trash" them? Are they sold off? I've always wondered what happens to most of them. I bought a signal years ago from a guy who lived next to an intersection up in Maryland - he told me the crew was just doing to trash them, so he asked to have the old signals, and the crew just handed them over. His story was believable because the intersection in front of his house had all new signals and the crew was long gone... Years later I witnessed crews in Florida just cut the wire - dropping signals and wire straight to the ground (causing damage to the old signals) when turning on a new intersection.
Funded by the federal infrastructure bill that passed along party lines!
Please don’t run red lights period.
Armando niwblapassqorspassqordpassqordpassqordpassqordpassqordpassqordpassqordpassqordpassqordpassqordpasswordpasswordpassqordpassqordpassqord
can it sense motorcycles?
😰 _the fact that a traffic light costs as much as a moderately mediocre car_
And people think roundabouts are cheaper
@@Trafficlightdoctor I'm a pretty fair medic and firefighter, & today I learned about the breathtaking cost of traffic signals, but I don't know anything about the costs of these things. I do have to wonder about safety and if there's any increase or decrease in one over the other.
@@Trafficlightdoctorwait aren't they?
It's kinda weird to see the south installing permanent light posts. I know the south hates taxes so much that they don't want to fund permanent light fixtures, that they prefer the ugly rope fixtures. This looks strange! Well done! 😂😂
Pretty cool video, but this intersection is the epitome of bad traffic engineering. Traffic engineers will tell you it's actually the epitome of good traffic engineering because it allows large amounts of vehicles to travel at high speeds though an intersection. Okay, but is that really our highest priority in transportation? How about reducing accidents, decreasing congestion, and supporting productive land-use? These types of roads and their intersections are over-engineered, dangerous, congestion-generating, expensive pieces of infrastructure that subsidize large businesses and bankrupt municipal governments. And it's sad to see them still being pursued in so many parts of the country.
We want longer videos
I’m trying! 😁
@@Trafficlightdoctor yaaay