7 Hour Outage of Chautauqua Traffic Signal Due to Faulty Circuit

Caltrans officials confirmed Wednesday's roughly seven-hour traffic signal outage at Pacific Coast Highway, Chautauqua Boulevard and Channel Road intersection was due to equipment problems.

The traffic signal for the five-way intersection experiences outages "from time to time," Caltrans Public Information Officer Kelly Markham told Patch Friday. She also confirmed power outages in nearby neighborhoods, such as March 20 outage on Entrada Drive, can affect the traffic signal.

Markham said the signal went into flashing red only during Wednesday's outage because of an open circuit. The wires needed to be replaced, according to Caltrans.

Markham said she was not sure how old the traffic signal is at PCH/Chautauqua, but noted it is one of the city's older intersections.

"We keep track of the accident data and traffic count," she added, noting Caltrans acts and will act on any matters to improve the intersection from investigations by other agencies.