How Will The City Deal With Golden 1 Center Traffic?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – City engineers believe their traffic management system with new cameras around the downtown corridor will keep traffic flowing around Golden 1 Center.

Timed to run on a time-of-day program, the downtown traffic signals can also be managed manually by engineers.

The city recently installed 15 new surveillance cameras around the Golden 1 Center to prepare for the influx of cars and pedestrians on event days.

"It allows us to individually access traffic signals and adjust the signal timing to the conditions that we see with our video management system," said telecommunications engineer Ryan Billeci.

The system allows engineers to see conditions up and down downtown corridors for 16 blocks and make changes, like longer or shorter signal times.

"All the camera systems have full pan tilt zoom," Billeci said.

Engineers say when they see congestion, like near parking garages, they can immediately take action with the help of police officers on scene.

Engineers say construction still underway in downtown will make things a bit trickier but are confident their system will eventually keep traffic and pedestrians on the right path.

It's a prediction some who work downtown are not sure will materialize.

"It's already congested enough now so I don't think it's going to get any better," one worker said.

This coming Tuesday will be the first test with thousands expected to come here to see Paul McCartney perform at Golden 1 Center.