Summit County will upgrade traffic signals at 36 intersections on the corridor between North Revere Road and downtown Akron with a $2 million federal street-safety grant, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes that the Akron Beacon Journal reported on Friday.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the money through its Safe Streets and Roads for All program. The grant will fund the county’s Criminal Justice Fiber Ring Adaptive Signalization Project, which links traffic signals to the county’s fiber network so signal timing can adjust to real traffic conditions instead of running on fixed cycles.
The corridor was chosen because of its crash history. According to the release Sykes’s office issued, the stretch recorded more than 4,200 crashes between 2019 and 2023. Twelve of those crashes were fatal, and 58 ended in suspected serious injuries.
“This $2 million federal investment will help Summit County use innovative technology to prevent crashes, improve traffic flow and make our roads safer for everyone,” Sykes said in the release.
County officials say the fiber connection is the heart of the project. “By leveraging the Summit Connects fiber infrastructure, we can use technology to improve traffic flow, give emergency vehicles a clearer path through intersections and support more reliable public transportation,” Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro said in the release.
The corridor links some of Summit County’s busiest suburban communities to downtown Akron, carrying commuters, Metro RTA buses and emergency traffic between the northern suburbs and the city’s core. Signal timing that cannot react to crashes, school traffic or rush-hour surges has long been a source of backups along the route.
Adaptive signals can hold a green light longer for an approaching ambulance or fire truck, shorten waits on side streets when the main corridor is empty, and keep bus routes moving on schedule. County officials have not yet published a construction timeline or a list of the 36 intersections included in the work.
The award continues a run of federal safety investment in the Akron area’s busiest corridors. Drivers who use the Revere Road-to-downtown route should watch for the county’s project schedule, which will set out when signal cabinets and fiber connections are installed at each intersection and whether any work requires lane closures.