The City of Kirkland is in the midst of a $3 million project aimed at clearing up congestion in the Totem Lake neighborhood.

The city is working to expand it’s intelligent traffic system, which ties intersections together and allows engineers to essentially direct traffic from city hall. The end result is, hopefully, faster commute times for those who use the 100th Avenue NE corridor.

The upgrades, phase two of the project, stretch along 100th avenue from the Kirkland-Bothell boundary south to 124th street, and from 100th avenue to Willows Road. Phase two also hits 132nd street from 100th avenue to 124th avenue.

Laura Drake, a project engineer with the Public Works Department, said she looks forward to seeing different areas of the city operate under one system.

“The exciting thing for me is that we’re tying intersections back to the main traffic management center,” she said. “An everyday person might not find that exciting, but for me, we’re basically laying out the backbone for how signals talk to each other.”

The new system allows engineers to update software remotely and change signal timing based on traffic needs on an up-to-date basis. There won’t be a need for in-pavement detection at intersections, the big black circles, which makes the system far more flexible.

When major improvements come to 100th avenue in the next several years, the “backbone” management system will already be in place.

The system uses fixed cameras that can detect vehicles or bicyclists. The phase two improvements also include new pedestrian push-buttons at intersections that play voice messages to help pedestrians with vision impairments know which direction is safe.

While phase one included installing the management system at city hall, phase two will help to transition former King County intersections under Kirkland management.

Construction began in mid-November and is expected to wrap up in the spring.