Starting the week of February 1, the Virginia Department of Transportation will begin installing high visibility traffic signal backplates on major road corridors in western and southside Virginia.
Installation is expected to take place over the next six months and be completed in conjunction with other maintenance at 124 signals throughout the region.
The affected locations include 31 intersections along Route 11, 26 intersections along Route 58, 40 intersections along Route 460, 19 intersections along Route 220 and eight along Route 29.
Outside peak travel times, drivers can expect possible lane closures around signalized intersections during daytime hours so bucket trucks can be used to raise workers into place to switch out the existing backplates with the new ones.
High visibility backplates are a proven safety measure to reduce crashes by increasing the visibility of traffic signals especially during nighttime and low visibility conditions. They have been shown to reduce signalized intersection crashes by 15 percent and fatal and injury intersection crashes by 29 percent.
The high visibility backplates were first installed in western and southside Virginia on Route 460 in the Bonsack area of Roanoke County in late 2014 and on Route 501 in Campbell County in early 2015. VDOT plans to expand their use across the state.
