The Manager's report back on the new traffic signals at the intersection of Broadway and Ellery Street

This memo is in response to Order 4 from the June 17, 2019 City Council Meeting (Awaiting Report 19-81) requesting a review and chronology of the installation of the new traffic signal at the intersection of Broadway and Ellery Street. In September of 2018, to prepare for the (then) upcoming installation of new traffic signals at Broadway and Ellery Street, we applied for approval from the Pole & Conduit Commission to install the necessary hardware and conduit.

We received a Grant of Location from the Pole & Conduit Commission on September 20th which allowed us (through our contractor) to install the conduit necessary for signalization, including the electric service conduit needed to energize the signals. Construction of the signal commenced on December 1, 2018 following the construction bidding procurement. The contractor awarded this work, Dagle

Electrical Construction Corp, sent the Department of Public Works a notification

letter of the construction start date. The foreperson from Dagle also began to coordinate with a representative of Eversource Electric about establishing a new service connection (to energize the signals). Preliminary installation of traffic conduit and traffic light foundations took place in mid-December. Dagle completed the majority of the signal installation work and applied for an

Electrical Permit with the Inspectional Services Department (ISD) in early

March. By the end of March, ISD electricians inspected and approved the service connection. Directly following the inspection on April 2, 2019, Dagle reached out to Eversource about energizing the signals by providing an electrical connection. Eversource requested payment on April 15 for the service connection and Dagle sent out a check the same week for payment. Dagle and the City followed-up through emails and phone calls to attempt to get

Eversource to provide power to the signals, but Eversource was unable to provide an exact schedule for the connection work. City staff communicated with Eversource multiple times over the 10-week period between the completion of the traffic signal installation and the eventual activation to communicate the critical safety concerns associated with the delays in activation.

Both City and Dagle staff emailed Eversource contacts on eight separate occasions, while staff also made weekly phone calls to check on the status of the connection and reinforce the imminent need to complete the work. I also met directly with the Eversource Community Relations representative on June 3rd at DPW’s weekly construction meeting to request that the delayed work be prioritized.

In mid-May, Eversource indicated that they would also need to receive Pole & Conduit Commission approval for a Grant of Location for this intersection, which was information that had not previously been communicated. Eversource obtained approval from the Commission on May 23rd and an Eversource representative requested that their Operations Division schedule the service connection work for the week of June 2nd. Weather delays pushed Eversource scheduling back to June 18th.

The traffic signal was energized and put into “flash” operation on June 19th for a one-week period in order to allow users of the intersection to adjust to the presence of an active signal prior to full activation. This procedure is consistent with best practices for traffic signal activation in order to minimize potential confusion with a new traffic control device.

The signal went into full operation on Tuesday, July 2nd (following some tree trimming to make the signal heads fully visible) and had been fully operational since then. As this chronology demonstrates, the City took all of the necessary actions that are within our control in a timely manner, subject to the normal uncertainty associated with a construction project.

However, once the signal was fully built, it took significantly longer than expected for Eversource to energize the signal, particularly due to the delay that was associated with the second Grant of Location, which Eversource has not previously indicated would be required.

Moving forward, when we will install traffic signals at new locations in the future, we will begin our coordination work with Eversource even earlier than we did for this project, to attempt to avoid a similar delay between the completion of construction and the activation of the signal.