Austin drivers may have noticed the signal lights at Oakland Avenue and 12th Street Southwest have been flashing red, acting as a four-way stop, instead of functioning normally.

According to Tom Tylutki, director of electric distribution at Austin Utilities, the signal light has been faulty for some time and Minnesota Department of Transportation officials are in the process of fixing it. The light is maintained by the state.

“Those lights are starting to fail,” Tylutki said. “They’ll be put on flash until someone can come down and get them fixed.”

Tylutki said MnDOT workers have tried to fix the issue, but more problems keep surfacing. According to the computer that operates the light, everything should be in working order, but it’s not.

“We get it on flash so there’s no traffic accidents,” Tylutki said. “There’s something going wrong in there. They’ve replaced some components, but they haven’t been able to narrow down the problem.”

MnDOT officials were not available for comment. There is no estimate on when the lights will resume normal functionality.