During the peak seasons in Galveston, the population can swell from 50 thousand to 300 thousand people due to tourism, cruise lines, and events. Crews will install the AI monitors at 106 intersections city-wide.
“This will be an entirely new system with AI cameras and controllers with all the bells and whistles that go along with the intersection. Behind the scenes, is where the real magic happens, we’ll have a traffic management center with staff to process that data and dump it into algorithms and act in real time to check surges during peak hours and weather events, monitor weekends and seasonal surges.” Assistant City Manager Brandon Cook said.
To fund the project, he says Galveston city officials agreed to work towards a common goal to apply for the federal, Smart Grant, offering 17 million dollars to 34 recipients for the AI traffic system. Cook says his team worked hard to give the application by the deadline that happened to be the same week when Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Houston area.
“Everyone had to deal with Hurricane Beryl recovery efforts at that time, but we powered through and still met the deadline. We were rewarded for it as well. There were only 34 in the entire United States, only 3 in Texas. One in El Paso, one in Waco and the 3rd was right here on little Galveston Island. We were able to beat out a lot of major metropolitan cities, to bring home that money and take this burden off our local taxpayers.” Cook said.
The Smart Grant awarded the city 17 million dollars.
City officials plan a pilot phase in Summer of 2026, installing the AI systems at 15 intersections, with a part of Seawall Boulevard as the leading candidate. The city will measure its success by looking at corridor travel time and delay reduction, with improved on-green percentages, and better event egress times.
The public will be able to watch the AI traffic standings on the city website, email/text through the city’s notification system as well as social media/press advisories.
Following the pilot phase, they plan to meet again in September to choose what AI system will work best for their needs.
The construction and installation phase of the project is expected to be short and localized.