The Municipal Services Committee met 08/21/2023. One of the items they took up was a request to approve a grant application for $220,750 to cover the replacement of 21 existing traffic signal computers/controllers and software along Wis DOT connecting highways (State Highways 47, 96, and 125) through Appleton.
Per the memo, “The basis for this proposed system replacement is our experience with Siemens brand control equipment and software has had a steady decline. The result of this decline is increased time and operational costs. There continues to be a growing number of significant operational concerns, leaving us with diminished functionality and impeding our ability to properly operate our system. More importantly, we have experienced a growing lack of response to the issues we identify and bring to their attention, and little to no updating of the software, which presents a risk that our system could become unstable or unusable.”
If the city was awarded the grant money, 90% of the cost of replacing the traffic computers/controllers would be covered by the grant and the city would only have to cover the remaining 10%, estimated to be $22,075.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the request to apply for the grant.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the discussion for download.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if the city had an emergency plan if the current Siemens’ computers/controllers died before the new computers/controllers were installed.
Traffic Engineer Eric Lom likened the city’s current situation to an old laptop that was running Windows 7. “it might chug along for five more years, and it might die tomorrow. And at that point, you’re just probably buying a new laptop, except that this is a lot more important.”
If the centralized control system breaks down “it would not turn the city into mass chaos,” but it would create a lot more work for city staff. Right now, all signal programming and changes can be done remotely, but if the system breaks down, they would have to send workers out to every traffic signal to make changes manually. The city would also lose some functionality such as the ability to coordinate signals to each other during certain times of the day.
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) asked if the level of service Siemens was currently providing had cost the city money. Engineer Lom responded that it had not cost the city any direct funds in the form of having to pay a vendor to do something; however, it was resulting in indirect costs by increasing the amount of staff time spent calling tech support and trying to fix ongoing issues. “It’s just sort of this never-ending time such to try and keep in running the way that it needs to run.”
Thankfully the city was not contractually stuck with Siemens and was free to find a different vendor. Additionally, the city had stopped doing the normal replacement of hardware on the traffic controllers about 5 years in anticipation of the problem they were now experiencing, so much of the hardware was fairly old and would need to be replaced anyway.
The city was paying an annual software maintenance fee to Siemens. Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) asked how the agreement was structured and whether, as they phased in the new hardware, they would be able to lessen the cost of that agreement. Engineer Lom did not know the answer to that but said that he could double check whether that was a possibility.
The committee proceeded to vote 5-0 to approve the request to apply for the grant.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1117561&GUID=94172A87-E323-4680-ABE7-D687BC3163CA
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