A6

By Jim Dumville

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And then there were five.

1 of 2

PHOTO BY DEVON JUDGE

Woodstock's new traffic lights on upper Main Street were switched from flashing caution to controlling traffic flow on Tuesday.

PHOTO BY DEVON JUDGE

Workers ensured the newly installed lights at the Deakin Drive and Main Street intersection were working properly on Tuesday.

Just over half a decade ago Woodstock was a small town without a traffic light. Now it has five sets of working lights.

On Tuesday afternoon, the lights were activated at the intersection of Main Street, Deakin Drive and the Grafton Bridge exit. That places electronic traffic control at both ends of Deakin Drive. The corner of Deakin and Connell was the site of the first set of modern-day lights when they were installed early this decade.

Although Main Street is a provincially designated highway, the traffic numbers at the Main and Deakin intersection didn't constitute a high enough number to warrant the provincial Department of Transportation paying part of the traffic light installation costs.

The town covered the entire cost of the traffic-light project, which carried a prize tag of nearly $120,000 when the purchase of the lights, installation and engineering are included in the equation.

In addition to the lights, the intersection underwent a redesign to improve the flow of traffic. Since Deakin Drive was built about a decade ago, the intersection has been the scene of several crashes. Town officials expect the number to drop significantly with the lights now controlling traffic flow.