Ground Broken on High-Tech $20M Regional Traffic Management Center

Escambia County, FL (Newsradio 92.3) -- Northwest Florida is getting a high-tech upgrade to its roadways. Officials broke ground Wednesday on a new Regional Traffic Management Center on North W Street in Escambia County, behind the Emergency Operations Center. The facility will manage more than 380 traffic signals across Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

The twenty-million-dollar facility will use artificial intelligence and cameras to adjust traffic light timing in real time, aiming to reduce wait times and improve safety. Local leaders say they hope the technology will help address a serious problem - more than 400 people have died on area roads in the past five years.

The center will also use cameras to detect crashes faster and spot near-miss incidents that typically go unreported, helping emergency responders get to scenes more quickly. Officials say the facility will be staffed around the clock, but completion is still several years away. All funding is coming through the Florida Department of Transportation.