Allan Cohen thinks it’s time the traffic problems at Falls Road and Tuckerman Lane are fixed.
“It’s terrible. It backs up all the way to Bells Mill,” he said. “The number of man-hours wasted at that intersection every day as well as the gallons of gas of people sitting in traffic — it’s ridiculous.”
“It’s all because of the sensors. We know what’s wrong,” Cohen said. He was referring to the two broken loop detectors at the intersection. The loop detectors are buried coils that detect the presence of cars on the roadway and affect the timing of the lights.
“They are probably the most accurate form of vehicle detective, however they are extremely sensitive to the condition of the pavement in which they are installed,” said Bruce Mangum, manager of the Transportation Systems Engineering Team at the Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation.
“In looking back through our records [that intersection] has at least two failed detectors. … Our current backlog is somewhere around 100 detectors,” Mangum said.
The detectors cover a six-foot by 30-foot section of the roadway and replacing them is a major construction job. In June, 2003 DPWT said it was putting off the job pending a construction project at the intersection to be conducted by the State Highway Administration.
The intersection is owned by the state but mostly maintained by the county.
The loop detectors aren’t the only reason for the problem, officials said. “As you know, Potomac has this two-lane road policy, so there is very little we can do in that area for capacity,” said Ed Gonzales of DPWT, addressing traffic in general. “We have significant backups at many other locations in Potomac [like] Piney Meetinghouse and River. There’s really very little that can be done when you say that you can only have two lanes.”
But Potomac’s two-lane road policy does allow for the addition of turn and acceleration lanes in congested intersections.
Traffic also backs up on Tuckerman Lane approaching Falls, especially during the afternoon hours after school lets out. The county, which handles signal timing, said it would reexamine the timing for the Tuckerman cycle.
The loop detectors remain in the county’s queue for construction. “We have been fortunate in the last budget cycle to secure some additional funding” to help replace the faulty loop detectors, Mangum said.