- Fresno’s $2.4 million traffic signal finally activates after 10 months.
- Years of planning and city-county coordination caused major delays.
- Local businesses say traffic flow and safety improved significantly.
Sometimes bureaucracy doesn’t just slow things down, it brings them to a near standstill. The phrase red tape often conjures images of government excess, endless regulations, and half-finished projects. Rarely, though, do we get to see exactly how it conforms to those stereotypes.
A telling example comes out of California, where one traffic signal took nearly a year to go live, not to mention that it cost about $2.4 million by the time it finally started working.
A Bureaucratic Detour
The project traces back to 2018, when plans began for a new traffic light at the intersection of Fowler and Olive in Fresno County. The county was behind the idea, but because the light sat on the edge of city limits, Fresno’s approval was required before anything could move forward.
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In fact, the county needed to build the light to meet city regulations. Add to the complication of those two government entities trying to work out the details to the work of purchasing the land, securing rights of way, buying equipment, and landscaping, and it’s somewhat easier to see what took so long.
In fact, once the signal was installed, it still took nearly ten months before the city could finally switch on the lights, quite literally.
“All the infrastructure was not available until more recently,” Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig told GV Wire. “We did see some poles that were going into the ground that seemed like they were there for many months before we saw the whole intersection fully materialize.”
Now that the signal is up and running, the city of Fresno will handle its upkeep.
A Light at Last
Local business owners say the difference is night and day. Hank Bocchini Jr., whose family owns the nearby Hank’s Swank Golf Course, said getting out of his driveway had become a daily gamble: “There were times we couldn’t even leave. Now, traffic just flows smoother.”
Recent data backs up his experience. According to a new report from Streets Are For Everyone, from 2021 to 2023, intersection violations in Fresno County led to 55 deaths and 153 serious injuries.
On average, that’s 18 people killed and 51 badly hurt each year, giving the county the dubious distinction of leading California’s larger counties in red-light and intersection crashes.
A Cost Beyond Time
To put things in perspective, another traffic light installation just a mile and a half away, at Temperance and McKinley avenues, took only three months from ground-marking to activation.
The reason for the stark difference? That project fell entirely within city limits and was managed by a private homebuilder. With fewer layers of approval, things moved far more quickly. Maybe that’s not always the ideal scenario, but it’s easy to imagine Fresno residents wishing this one had followed suit.
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