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Montgomery County plans to speed up a $35 million project to replace the county's aging traffic signal system after last week's computer problems caused rush-hour delays.

The complex traffic system failed last week, causing traffic signals around the county to remain in non-rush-hour mode instead of switching to rush-hour patterns. The rush-hour patterns speed up traffic flow by keeping green lights on longer on main thoroughfares. The system controls more than 700 traffic signals in the county.

The problem lasted for 40 hours and caused delays through four rush hours before traffic engineers re-established the signal from the computer to the traffic devices.

"I appreciate the patience of our residents and commuters," County Executive Isiah Leggett said last week. "I know it has been a rough couple of days in Montgomery County. I know because I've been stuck in traffic, too."

Leggett directed the staff to expedite the county's plan to upgrade and modernize the complex traffic management system that gathers information from a variety of cameras and aerial surveillance to control the traffic signals at specific streets. The coordinated effort is designed to improve rush-hour traffic flow.

The traffic management upgrade is in the second year of a six-year plan, county spokeswoman Esther Bowring said.

Traffic engineers and computer technicians worked around the clock after the problem was discovered about 3 a.m. Wednesday in an effort to fix the glitch.

The computer that operates the system dates back to the 1980s, Bowring said. The computer is so old that at times replacement parts are unavailable, and custom parts have to be made from scratch to make repairs, she said. In this case, a communications interface part failed, and a replacement part was found but had to be customized to work with the computer.

While the county was able to fix the problem, replacing the complex system is going to take time, Bowring said.

The county will have to replace everything from the fiber optics to the central computer to the software to manage the system, she said.

County workers are trying to determine how best to speed up the effort, Bowring said. In addition, the county has to replace the system while not disrupting daily commuters, she said.

County officials are still determining plans for the new system, including what the central computer would look like and how the work would be done, Bowring said.

"It's a huge undertaking," she said.