Flashing yellow turn arrows will be installed at the Research Forest Drive intersections at Pinecroft Drive, Six Pines Drive and Holly Hill Court, Montgomery County Precinct 3 traffic operations manager Charles Cobb said. Additionally, the precinct will add a flashing yellow turn light at David Memorial Drive and Tamina Road by the end of the year.

The installations are a part of a mobility improvement project by Precinct 3, which is also changing the timing patterns on all of the street lights in the precinct, Cobb said. The traffic lights will also have multiple timing patterns programmed to adjust to the time of the day, Cobb said.

Traffic signals on Research Forest Drive will have the lights installed and retimed within three to four months, depending on shipment times for new parts, Cobb said. As a whole, the mobility improvement project will take between six to eight months to complete.

However, Research Forest Drive brings distinctive challenges because it is the first three-lane roadway to feature the flashing yellow lights installed in the precinct, said city of Shenandoah administrator Greg Smith.

"[The lights] have been implemented into roads that basically have two lanes of traffic, not three lanes of traffic," Smith said. "So the county engineer has agreed to allow it, but he is also reserving the right that if we have an increase in accidents, that if it does become a traffic hazard, [they] could potentially be removed."

Precinct 3 has already installed flashing yellow lights on Woodlands Parkway, Rayford Road, Sawdust Road, Riley Fuzzel Road, Lake Woodlands Drive and Grogan's Mill Road, Cobb said. Along with the Research Forest Drive improvements, mobility improvement work on Lake Woodlands Drive is also underway.

Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said the improvements have been welcome by area residents.

"We have had tremendous positive feedback on the traffic-flow improvements in affected intersections," Noack said. "Our area is witnessing incredible growth and we are doing our best to keep up with the increase in traffic by streamlining as many intersections as we can."