The Illinois Department of Transportation said Friday it has completed its Signal Coordination and Timing Study along the Route 3 corridor in Columbia and is ready to implement changes to the traffic lights.

Now that the SCAT study is finished, IDOT said engineers have the information necessary to adjust the timing of traffic signals along the corridor, beginning Oct. 22 with fine-tuning completed by Oct. 26, weather permitting. The adjustments will be implemented at each signalized intersection along Route 3 in Columbia between I-255 and Route 158.

There will also be electronic signage to call drivers’ attentions to the signal modifications; they will be left in place for an adjustment period.

Until the SCAT study was completed, IDOT, which is in charge of the state highway, was unable to make any substantive changes regarding the intersections. In the months the longitudinal study was being conducted, IDOT put in rumble strips to signal to drivers’ they are approaching areas of caution, special reflective signs, signage indicating drivers are leaving a highway and entering an enforced traffic area, and more.

Changes to improve safety on Route 3 in Columbia came about in the wake of fatal and serious injury crashes along the corridor in recent years.

Read the full story in next week’s Republic-Times.