Rome News, Rome Georgia, Georgia News, Rome Online, Rome Weather, Rome Headlines, Georgia Newswire

New Traffic Light Snarls Traffic At Broad And 2nd

If you have traveled 2nd Avenue in the last few weeks, you don’t need us to tell you that something is different. Traffic at the intersection backs up in both directions on 2nd since the Department of Transportation installed a new traffic light.

Motorists traveling from the east side of town heading toward West Rome have it tougher in the morning as lights on 2nd Avenue’s intersections with East 1st and East 2nd street are not in sync with the newly installed light on Broad Street. Often lights at 2nd’Avenue’s intersections with East 1st and East 2nd St are green while the signal at Broad is red. When the Light at Broad finally turns green, lights at East 2nd and East 1st have already gone to red and the Broad street light only allows a few cars to pass through.

In the evenings, travelers headed from the West Rome area across Broad Street into East Rome have a tougher time as traffic often backs up past Barron Stadium.

So what’s the problem? We asked that question to Rome city manager John Bennett.

Bennett says the intersection has long had a problem with left turns onto Broad from motorists coming from West Rome because it backs up traffic in the inside lane. “There have been many wrecks there from people trying to change lanes to go around someone turning left so they can go across Broad.”

Bennett says he relayed that information to the DOT on numerous occasions (2nd Avenue is technically a state route, Hwy 101) and finally got some assistance with the situation from DOT board member David Doss. Bennett says “what we were looking at doing was prohibiting left turns during peak traffic times”. He says there was some misunderstanding between the city and the DOT because they changed the previous 3 phase light and installed a 4 phase light, decreasing the time allowed on 3 of the 4 phases.

“The change also caused the city to loose their progressive movement in the area” Bennett said. That Means the sync of the lights that feed Broad and 2nd are not aligned and do not allow for a smooth flow of traffic.

Bennett says he will be working with the DOT to fix the problems with the light. “They were trying to help” he said. “Unfortunately it appears to have made the situation worse”.