NEW ORLEANS — There’s been a lot of honking, close-calls, some fender benders, traffic backups, and even more honking around New Orleans traffic lately, all brought on by temporary four-way stops where traffic lights should be.
More than two dozen traffic lights are currently out, or blinking red, across the city.
All of them, according to Acting Director of Department of Public Works Josh Hartley, are outside the skillset of DPW employees in the signal shop.
“So we have a total of 25 interactions that are planned to be fixed, it’s the primary ones that everyone is noticing; Poydras and Magazine, Prytania and Jackson,” said Hartley.
Hartley says his signal shop only has between six and eight employees, who can only complete basic, above-ground repairs.
He says more complicated fixes, like water damage or traffic control box replacement, have to be completed by contractors. The city has not had those contractors in about a year, said Hartley.
“So I would say, our contracts are coming. We just haven’t had a contract for a year or so right now, due to some challenges we had,” he said.
The city also has an agreement with the Louisiana Department of Transportation to repair traffic lights under its jurisdiction. The state funds the repair, and DPW or its contractors take care of the rest.
Last year, Hurricane Ida sent the city scrambling for an emergency traffic repair contract when the storm damaged 225 of the city’s 476 traffic lights.
But DPW says the issues from Hurricane Ida have been repaired. The lights currently out are new problems that arose after hurricane damage was fixed, and are too extensive to be fixed by DPW employees.
“So, unfortunately, some of those signals went out, the ones that we did repair for other reasons. They require more comprehensive scope and nature to complete,” said Hartley.
DPW records we obtained show the light at Magazine Street and Poydras has been in need of repair since January 12th. We saw plenty of tourists dodging traffic in crosswalks Wednesday afternoon.
“Hopefully we don’t end up you know, ‘splat’ on the ground out there,” laughed Ernest Jones, who is visiting from North Carolina.
Records also show that the light at Magazine Street and State Street has been out since March 29th.
“It is frustrating, especially right here because no one really knows who has the right of way,” said Chris Curry, who works down the street.
Back at City Hall, Hartley said two signal repair proposal requests came back with zero bids last month. He said after some tweaks to the terms, he expects there to be bids this month.
He’s hoping to pick five contractors, one for each district, next Friday. He says work could begin in about three weeks, with priority on major thoroughfares.
“Once we get these contracts back online, those response times to get repair times will be much shorter in time compared to what they’re currently experiencing,” he said.
As a reminder, if you come upon a stoplight that is blinking red, treat it as an all-way stop, and be courteous to other drivers and pedestrians.