Transit Control Center Planned to Help Ease Freeway Congestion

A new transportation management center is being planned for downtown Los Angeles that will use state-of-the-art computer and communications technology in an effort to ease congestion on Los Angeles freeways.

The center, to be built near the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s high-rise headquarters, would consolidate in one location the traffic management programs of Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP dispatch center handles emergency calls and requests from motorists for assistance, while Caltrans monitors freeway traffic in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

The transportation center will be equipped with upgraded computer systems and a fiber-optic communications network, and will have the capability of expanded closed-circuit television surveillance of freeways. The structure also would handle the transportation agencies’ response to a major earthquake or other disaster.