For anyone who's ever prayed for the light to change more quickly at 34th Street and Archer Road - your prayers may be answered.
The Florida Department of Transportation is putting up ,9.1 million to match funds from Gainesville, Alachua County and UF for an ,18.2 million project updating the timing of the traffic-light system.
The project will update every traffic light in the county in four phases, starting with the most congested areas.
The first phase should be completed by July 2008, and the entire project should be finished by 2012.
The first phase will include Archer Road between 34th Street and Interstate 75 and portions of 34th Street, 13th Street, Newberry Road and University Avenue.
Gainesville, which controls all the traffic signals in Alachua County, will be heading the project and contributing up to ,5 million. Alachua County will spend ,2 million on the project, and UF will spend ,3.8 million.
Phil Mann, Gainesville Traffic Operations division manager, said the next phase will cover intersections expected to face bad congestion by 2025. Phases three and four will cover the rest of the traffic lights in the county.
"We're addressing what's bad today, then what's projected to be bad," he said.
Gina Hawkins, Gainesville Public Works Department spokeswoman, said Gainesville and Alachua County's traffic lights currently run on an MS-DOS system. The project will make them Windows-based.
"It means we're going from the 20th century to the 21st," she said.
The new system will allow emergency vehicles to change the light's color at any intersection, which is currently only possible at some, she said.
The project will also install cameras along major intersections so engineers can study traffic flow and create a Traffic Management Center to house the new system, she said.
The Traffic Management Center will be adjacent to the public works center at 403 NW 39th Ave.
Mann said the city has been trying to raise money for the project since 1997.
The matching funds come from the FDOT's Transportation Regional Incentive Program.
The program helps pay for traffic projects that improve regional transportation, FDOT spokeswoman Gina Busscher said.
"This way these regions are responsible for planning and making corrections and doing something with the traffic," she said.
Busscher said Gainesville is home to many roads used for inter-county travel.
"We definitely have a stake in the interest," she said.
