West Las Positas Stop Light Will Help Ease Traffic Woes

A dormant stoplight at the intersection of West Las Positas Boulevard and Muirwood Drive will be working in a week, to the relief of students who walk through that intersection daily.

The intersection does not have a crossing guard, and neighbors in the area said they had seen some near misses between students and cars. The light has been in place since the fall, but doesn't work. People were starting to wonder if it ever would.

Pleasanton City Engineer Mike Tassano said it will begin functioning sometime around Dec. 27.

He said that the intersection had a rapid facelift during the fall and then the project came to a sudden halt. The delay was was because Pacific Gas & Electric had to connect several wires from the power pole into the box so that the city could take the power into the meter.

Last week, PG&E did the necessary work and Tassano is waiting for school to be out for the winter holiday before sending crews back to the intersection. Once out there, the crew will need to do some last-minute finishing touches, such as removing the stop signs and repainting the roadway markings.

The signal is not a result of citizen complaints or collisions in that intersection, Tassano said, but rather because it was recently determined that there will never be a West Las Positas interchange coming off of Interstate 680.

Once that had been decided, Tassano said that the intersection project was pushed to the top of the priority list.

“There’s a safety benefit to putting the stoplight in," he said. "It is more of a pedestrian benefit than a vehicle benefit.”

Although the traffic delays will be lessened, Tassano said they will still be present due to the close proximity and similar release times of and Lydiksen Elementary.  

Tassano said he believes the light will help get drivers out of the neighborhoods that surround the schools.

“The light will provide safer movement.”