The traffic light system at the busy intersection of Friedberger Landstraße, Nibelungen- and Rothschildallee is one of the most complex traffic light circuits in Frankfurt: Last Monday at 7:24 a.m. sharp, the system sent an error message to the traffic control center.

The content in a nutshell: Nothing works anymore.

According to the road traffic office, a technician who was notified immediately determined three quarters of an hour later at 8:15 a.m. that the traffic light was a total loss.

The traces on the cables gave a clear indication: Mice had eaten and damaged the lines in the traffic light control.

This caused the cable to catch fire, which in turn led to a short circuit in the power supply unit.

As the office further reports, the short circuit resulted in a total loss of the so-called control unit,

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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According to the Road Traffic Office, it is quite certain that mice were actually the culprits and not other, perhaps larger rodents such as rats.

A pest controller who was rushed to make sure that the rodents didn't cause any further damage clearly identified mice as the culprit.

Because of their size, rats or martens would not be able to get inside the control unit.

Since the day the mice struck, the manufacturing company has been working on putting the traffic light back into operation, which according to the Road Traffic Office is more than ten years old.

It quickly turned out that it made more sense to replace the entire electronics.

As soon as the error message was received by the traffic control center in the Gutleutviertel, they immediately activated the "closure plan" available for such emergencies.

This means that lanes are blocked with construction site beacons to reduce traffic.

In this case, the middle of the three lanes leading in both directions was blocked.

This is intended to give pedestrians the option of only having to cross one lane at a time and then having a certain amount of safety space again.

Around 50,000 vehicles pass through every day

At the same time, the traffic police have been alerted to regulate traffic at least during peak periods.

In this specific case, according to the office, the employees were on duty from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

After all, around 50,000 vehicles are driving through the intersection on one of the middle working days, i.e. Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, approaching the intersection from four directions.

According to the road traffic office, this intersection is also one of the larger intersections in Frankfurt in terms of traffic volume.

Since the city administration is aware of the traffic volume, the city traffic police were also on duty until 5 p.m. on Saturday.

As reported by the Road Traffic Office, the traffic signs at every traffic light intersection apply outside of the times when traffic is regulated manually.

Apparently, however, this orientation to the traffic signs overwhelmed many drivers.

Because users of the intersection speak of sometimes chaotic conditions, especially since not only the drivers had to reorient themselves, but also cyclists and pedestrians who, for example, were on their way to the University of Applied Sciences, the former university of applied sciences, located at the intersection.

The Road Traffic Office hopes that the traffic light system - it is one of around 850 in the city - can be put back into operation by this Tuesday at the latest.

The manufacturing company immediately ordered all the material for the new electronics, and it arrived on Thursday.

Since then, the company has been working on dismantling all the old electronics.

According to the office, this applies to all components of the control electronics, the entire electrical system and the wiring.

These alone include 35 signal cables with a total of around 840 individual conductors.

Because the entire traffic light system consists of 41 so-called signal groups.

In other words: There are 41 spots on this traffic light that can light up.

After all, buses and trams also run on Friedberger Landstraße and the traffic light changes faster to green for them.