DATE: Sunday, May 4, 1997                   TAG: 9705040057

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   50 lines

NORFOLK'S SMART ROADS WILL BE DESIGNED TO EASE TRAFFIC

Driving around town should be easier in a few years, despite growing traffic, when the city unveils an $8 million, high-tech traffic-management system.

Up to 30 closed circuit television cameras, 32 miles of fiber optics, and 175 computerized traffic signals, as well as a command center at City Hall, will be installed over the next two to three years. The system will be paid for with federal funds.

When complete, technicians will be able to watch busy intersections on television monitors, and with the stroke of a keyboard, change the signals to improve traffic flow.

In effect, the roads will have eyes and brains.

This is Norfolk's foray into a worldwide trend called Intelligent Transportation Systems, also known as Transportation Management Systems and ``smart'' roads. The Virginia Department of Transportation is poised to open its $13 million system in South Hampton Roads this summer.

The two networks will be able to ``talk'' and share information.

On interstates, like VDOT's local program, smart travel means monitoring the highways for accidents and congestion and alerting motorists and emergency crews of problems.

In urban settings, like Norfolk, it means changing the image of ``stop lights'' to ``go lights'' by keeping traffic flowing, said Para M. Jayasinghe, Norfolk's chief traffic engineer.

In Norfolk's system, the key is smart traffic lights that can be programmed from the control center. ``We need to be able to program them to behave differently at different times of the day depending on the traffic,'' Jayasinghe said.

The city will replace about 175 of the city's 270 ``dumb'' traffic lights with ``smart'' ones.

An essential element of the system will be closed-circuit cameras that instantly send video to the command center from various hot spots in the city.

Likely locations for cameras include along St. Paul's Boulevard, at the Norfolk Naval Base and Norfolk Naval Air Station gates, the entrance to the Norfolk International terminals and Military Highway, Jayasinghe said.

``These are places where we feel the traffic doesn't do the same things day in and day out,'' he added.

Two computerized message signs, placed at designated locations, will deliver instant warnings of congestion so motorists can avoid gridlock.

City officials hope to have the new system, at least in the downtown area, in place in time to handle the added traffic from the opening of MacArthur Center mall in spring 1999. KEYWORDS: TRAFFIC NORFOLK

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