The Alpharetta City Council recently approved two one-year contracts to keep the city’s traffic signals running smoothly.

The city has approved a $65,020 contract with Temple to monitor existing signal preemption systems and a $31,966 contract with Metro Trafix to make necessary repairs and field adjustments to preemption systems.

In December 2019, Temple partnered with Applied Technologies and began the installation of emergency vehicle preemption within Alpharetta with completion of installation in February 2020.

In January 2021, both parties began a program to monitor the efficiency of the preemption system and provide monthly reports to the city’s public works and public safety departments. Based on those reports, work orders were created for the repair of equipment or adjustment of signal timing.

Due to the volume of maintenance generated, the city decided an engineering firm with experience in preemption maintenance, Metro Trafix, would be the best way to maintain the preemption system.

Since Temple and Metro Trafix have been managing the project, the city reports emergency response time has improved by 20%, which is equivalent to a one-minute reduction in travel time.