CHALLENGE
Sault Ste. Marie is the third-largest city in Northern Ontario, Canada. In recent years, the city has seen steady commercial development growth and the move of a hospital to the northern part of the city. Congestion is particularly an issue at the intersection of Second Line E/Great Northern Rd. It is the busiest intersection, seeing upwards of 60,000 vehicles per day, including freight transport. Further compounding the situation, the intersection has single left-turn lanes, causing traffic to become congested quickly and for sustained periods.
ECONOLITE SOLUTION
Sault Ste. Marie is a long-time Econolite customer, having transitioned from Aries to Centracs ATMS in 2020, and installed Cobalt controllers as replacement upgrades when possible. After deploying Centracs, Sault Ste. Marie’s Traffic Division was able
to increase operational visibility at the intersections, including remote access to make signal timing adjustments. To address increasing traffic volumes now and in the future, the Traffic Division also looked to better identify signal timing improvements and monitor efficiencies, including an automated signal optimization solution. As a result, in 2021, Sault Ste. Marie turned to Econolite again to deploy Centracs SPM to gain further insight into signal timing efficiencies.
Upon implementing Centracs SPM, the Traffic Division was able to verify and standardize all of the intersection timing plans and operations. The city looks forward to leveraging Centracs SPM’s optimization features soon.
