Harker Heights is a step closer to having a traffic pre-emption system that helps make intersections safer when fire engines and ambulances go through them.
The city council at its meeting Tuesday authorized City Manager Steve Carpenter to sign an agreement between the city and the state to purchase, install and maintain the system on state property.
The system uses GPS locators on vehicles to signal traffic lights at designated distances to change the traffic control lights – green for the emergency vehicle and red for the other three intersection lights.
“This is the latest concept out there,” Fire Chief Jack Collier told the council. Noting that Harker Heights will be “the first city in Central Texas” to have the system, Collier said it has been installed in numerous cities throughout the state and nation for about four years.
The system will be installed at 10 intersections throughout town – including six on FM 2410, which is state property – and on 10 fire department units. The same number of intersections and vehicles is simply coincidental, Collier said Wednesday.
Once Carpenter finalizes the aforementioned agreement with the Texas Department of Transporation, the company handling the pre-emp system – Opticom of Arlington, Texas – will begin installing it, which will take less than a week, Collier said. If all goes as planned, the system should be operational by June 15.
Prompted by Mayor Ed Mullen, Collier said the fire department would certainly proceed with caution – as it does now, without the system – when approaching intersections.
The city’s share of the $117,450 cost of the system is $11,745, which will be funded from the so-called “fixed asset” account. The other $105,705 is from the Department of Homeland Security, under the FY 2009 Assistance to Firefighters Grant.
Police Chief Mike Gentry said similar systems are available for police use, in response to councilman Pat Christ’s inquiry. While his department would like to have the system, Gentry said, “We prioritized it lower in our budget.”
“Our units are smaller and more mobile than (the fire department’s),” he said, explaining that police cars can go off-road, while fire department vehicles cannot, without doing damage to them.
“For us, it was less critical,” Gentry said.
City intersections where the pre-emption systems will be installed
FM 2410 & Ann Blvd.
FM 2410 & Central Texas Expressway
FM 2410 & Miller’s Crossing
FM 2410 & Wampum
FM 2410 & Mountain Lion
FM 2410 & Verna Lee/Stillhouse Lake Road/FM 3481
Indian Trail/FM 3423 & Central Texas Expressway
Veterans Memorial Blvd/Business 190 & Ann Blvd.
Veterans Memorial Blvd/Business 190 & Harley Road
Veterans Memorial Blvd/Business 190 & Roy Reynold Drive.
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