San Marcos Boulevard Ready for Improvements

At the San Marcos City Council meeting on April 26, the council voted to accept improvements made to San Marcos Boulevard as part of the city’s “Smart Corridor Project.” The project was mostly paid for with a traffic-light synchronization grant from the California Department of Transportation.

“San Marcos has taken the lead in its intelligent transportation systems,” said city engineer Mike Edwards. “We were recognized by the local Institute of Transportation Engineers last year as the public agency of the year.”

According to Edwards, the city had previously invested in hardware and software that allowed him to stretch the available funds. The total cost of the project was $671,000. Grant money paid for $549,000 of it.

San Marcos Boulevard has more than two busy periods during the course of a day due to three schools and many businesses located in the area. In 2006, SANDAG determined the level of service to be deficient.

“And then, in 2008, prior to this project,” Edwards said, “the deficiency was lifted from the Congestion Management Program because we made significant improvements…. The challenge was to synchronize all 17 signals from Acacia [Drive] to Rancheros [Drive].”

Edwards said that 50,000 vehicles travel the corridor each day.