Closed circuit television cameras have been installed at three major Tauranga intersections to help stop the city locking up when a traffic crisis hits.
The $90,000 cameras are the last vital cog in Tauranga's computerised transport system to keep traffic flowing smoothly through town.
They have been installed at the Chapel St/Marsh
St intersection and the 15th Ave intersections with Fraser St and Cameron Rd.
The swivel cameras instantly alert roading authorities to an emerging crisis caused by something out of the ordinary, such as accidents or breakdowns, and allows them to manually control the city's traffic signals to reduce congestion.
Transit New Zealand regional operations manager Ian Cox said the cameras were also a real-time tool to check the length of queues behind traffic detectors in the road.
The three cameras are now backing up the computerised system that has operating around nearly all the city's signalled intersections since late last year.
They operate on a closed circuit and are separate to Trustpower's webcam initiative to install low-resolution cameras around eight city locations by December.
Under the TrustPower plan, commuters will be able to use their computers to access free live pictures of Tauranga's traffic hotspots to help navigate their way around town.
Mr Cox said Transit's cameras enabled engineers to see how the new co-ordinated traffic system was working at key sites - without needing to have someone on the ground.
Engineers were regularly checking and tweaking the phasing of the signals to iron out problems.
The jointly funded $200,000 city council and Transit computerised traffic system talked to itself.
Once a line of cars was on the move, it continued in a "green wave" without constantly stopping at red lights.
Traffic Design Group's project engineer Hjarne Poulsen said there had been a big improvement in traffic flows since the introduction of the co-ordinated traffic system, despite teething problems.
The system along Cameron Rd had introduced delays at side roads but not been as bad as people had been expecting.
The system has been used at the Chapel St/Marsh St intersection and Cameron Rd/15th Ave.
