The synchronization of traffic lights in downtown Scranton remains a work in progress, officials said.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Transportation assembled a team, including the system designer and contractor, that checked out some of the trouble spots, PennDOT spokesman James May said.
"We continue to have some issues with the timing of the synchronization" of the lights and signals, Mr. May said. "We're looking to see what issues can be resolved."
The traffic light timing is part of a $5.6 million PennDOT project, now in its 16th month, to upgrade traffic signals at 50 downtown intersections.
The project has been bookended by problems. It began in mid-March 2012, but was halted during the first week of April 2012, when the contractor learned that underground vaults are common downtown but had not been taken into account in project designs. That problem was resolved last year and the project resumed.
Now, at the end of the light/signal upgrade, various road work projects in and around the city may be altering commuting habits and exacerbating the situation downtown, Mr. May said. The timing of new lights and signals is based on average daily traffic counts on each street, he said.
The result has been that since new lights have been coming online, traffic flow seems to have not improved but actually worsened, motorists have said. The timing of downtown pedestrian signals also was called into question by city council members.
The light/signal upgrade project initially was expected to be completed by April, but that timeline has been pushed back. While replacement of lights, poles and signals has been mostly completed, synchronization has continued, Mr. May said.
"It's sort of like a 50-sided Rubik's Cube. As soon as you change one (the timing at an intersection), it affects the others," Mr. May said.
"We knew it would take some tweaking to get it where it should be."
Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com, @jlockwoodTT on Twitter