Supervisors approve contract process for new signals

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the advertisement for bid and subsequent award of a construction contract for traffic signals at five intersections in unincorporated San Diego County including the intersection of Old Highway 395 and Rainbow Glen Road and the intersection of South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road.

The supervisors' 5-0 vote May 19 authorized the director of the county's Department of Purchasing and Contracting to advertise a construction contract for bid and to award that contract to the low responsive bidder, designated the director of the county's Department of Public Works as the county officer responsible for administering the construction contract, and found that the minor alteration of existing public roads involving negligible if any expansion of existing use is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review.

"It's a very positive step," said Supervisor Jim Desmond. "Infrastructure is one of our core responsibilities."

The county's Traffic Advisory Committee reviews requests for placing an intersection on the county's Traffic Signal Priority List, and the TAC recommendation is usually ratified by the Board of Supervisors. (If a traffic signal is part of a development and funded by the developer that intersection does not undergo the TAC process and is not on the priority list, and the California Department of Transportation rather than the county has jurisdiction over an intersection of a county road and a state or Interstate highway.)

If an intersection is placed on the Traffic Signal Priority List, priority points based on operational and safety improvements rather than the length of time a signal has been on the list determine the next intersection to be signalized when funding is available although design issues such as private property for a three-way intersection may cause a lower-priority intersection to be signalized first as can grant funding for the lower-priority intersection.

The Board of Supervisors placed the intersection of South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road on the Traffic Signal Priority List in January 2017 and placed the intersection of Old Highway 395 and Rainbow Glen Road on the priority list in November 2019. The 4S Ranch intersection among the five new signals was placed on the Traffic Signal Priority List in January 2015, and the two Rancho San Diego intersections to be signalized as part of the contract have been on the priority list since the 1990s.

In August 2020, the Board of Supervisors approved the county's fiscal year 2020-21 budget and included $5.1 million for traffic signals at six intersections. "I'm glad to see it's finally moving forward today," Desmond said.

Those six intersections also included East Mission Road and Santa Margarita Drive, which was placed on the Traffic Signal Priority List in April 2011. The design is complicated by three driveways which access East Mission Road in the vicinity of that intersection.

A July 2018 traffic survey of the intersection of Old Highway 395 and Rainbow Glen Road counted 5,881 northbound and 2,311 southbound vehicles on Old Highway 395. "It acts as a bypass to Temecula," Desmond said.

Rainbow Glen Road had 1,386 eastbound and 1,101 westbound vehicles in that traffic survey. A July 2019 collision at the intersection resulted in one fatality and three other injuries, and the accident rate is more than four times the statewide average for similar intersections.

An October 2014 traffic survey at South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road indicated an average daily volume of 10,570 northbound and 10,230 southbound vehicles on South Mission Road with 1,160 westbound vehicles on Green Canyon Road.

"It's an important intersection for parents and students," Desmond said.

The anticipated cost including contingency for signals at the five intersections is $4,250,000. Construction is scheduled to begin in fall 2021 and to be complete by late 2022.