COUNTYWIDE : Center for Traffic Control Dedicated

Resembling a NASA flight control headquarters, the county’s new Transportation Management Center was dedicated Thursday by transportation officials.

From the state-of-the-art facility, traffic controllers will monitor and manage the county’s 280 miles of freeways and 19 miles of toll roads.

“The end result is that we’re going to be able to manage traffic in Orange County better than we ever have before,” Dwight McKenna, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, told more than 60 dignitaries and elected officials gathered for the opening at Caltrans’ Santa Ana headquarters.

Staffed around the clock by experts representing both agencies, the center is equipped with closed-circuit TV monitors carrying signals from dozens of cameras at strategic points along the freeways.

It is also equipped with a large color-coded map showing freeway speeds as indicated by 3,700 detectors in the pavement, computerized controls for 33 electronic message signs and 278 metered onramps, as well as electronic links to the CHP, UC Irvine and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and smaller traffic control centers in Anaheim and Irvine.

“This is going to provide a better, safer transportation system in Orange County,” Caltrans spokesman Albert Miranda said after a demonstration of the center’s capabilities.

Traffic officials have said they expect the new center to result in a 25% to 30% improvement in the time required to clear freeway congestion, as well as benefits to researchers developing transportation systems for the future.