City to Begin Installing Traffic Cameras

The first phase of a $740,000 program to install cameras that would monitor traffic on heavily traveled streets won City Council approval Monday.

The council also chose a contractor to decide where to place cameras at four freeway interchanges: La Paz Road and Alicia, Oso and Crown Valley parkways.

“If there’s an incident on the freeway and traffic starts to divert onto local streets, we would be able to change the signal timing to let traffic flow easier,” said Shirley Land, city traffic engineer. “This program doesn’t prevent congestion, but it does manage it.”

City officials hope to have the cameras installed by summer. Money for the project will come from a state transportation grant.

The video images will be broadcast to a traffic control center at City Hall. Traffic lights can be regulated from there.

Mission Viejo will share the broadcasts with the California Department of Transportation.

Eventually, city officials said, they hope also to use the Caltrans cameras already in place on Interstate 5.

“It’s just one more tool to keep track of what’s going on in the streets,” Land said.

The city awarded a $289,930 contract to National Engineering Technology Corp. for the design work.

The council also authorized a $42,000 contract to Sarakki Associates for overall project management and $15,000 to Horn & Associates for plan checking and review.