As Bryan-College Station grows, so does traffic, but the Metropolitan Planning Organization is collecting data that should present solutions.
Director Brad McCaleb says a corridor study of Highway 6 reaching from southern College Station to northern Bryan is focused on the volume of traffic and backed-up traffic at the entrance and exit ramps.
The purpose of the study is to try to identify some alternatives for addressing the congestion and delays at the interchanges, as well as to get a time frame for when they need to develop projects for adding capacity to the main lanes at Highway 6.
McCaleb says 27 cameras and multiple tube counters have been recording traffic volume, and the total cost for the study is slightly more than $155,000, which is being funded through the MPO’s federally granted planning funds.
He says they suspect that a large amount of back-ups are caused by the number of left-turn movements when exiting the highway.
McCaleb says one solution would be to add turnaround structures, so that drivers needing to turn left, then turn left again, wouldn’t need to go through the traffic signals.
He says Alliance Transportation Group out of Austin is doing the data collection and analysis, and the MPO will meet with the Highway 6 Advisory Group soon.
He says they’ll have meetings to inform the public and receive ideas in the near future.
Brad McCaleb visits with WTAW’s Kat McMullen
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