Traffic and the Art Of Signal Maintenance
September 2004 IBEW Journal
 Southern
California IBEW members will soon have the skills to install
and commission traffic lights, thanks to a new course at the
Orange County Electrical Training Trust around the International
Municipal Signal Association Certification Program and the
California Department of Transportation Traffic Manual. At
the Local
441 training school in Santa Ana, apprentices will be
learning traffic signal installation as part of their journeyman
wireman curriculum, said instructor Pat Warton.
The training school instruction, both
for apprentices and for journeyman wiremen continuing their
coursework under new mandatory state licensing rules, started
in response to requests from contractors who needed workers
skilled in the devices.
"One of our contractors said it takes
a good five years before they allow a journeyman to work on
a signal alone," Warton said. "Their concern is
liability as 24 different signals are being generated at any
one time."
It is a skill that will improve the marketability
of IBEW members and increase their value to contractors. Traffic
control devices are not only found on public rights of way,
Warton said, but on the many private campuses around Southern
California.
Apprentice Geraldo Javier (left) wires
the signal pole base as instructor Rick Hecht mans the control
cabinet at the Local
441 training school.
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