The adjoint method provides a computationally efficient means of calculating the gradient for applications in constrained optimization. In this article, we consider a network of scalar conservation laws with general topology, whose behavior is modified by a set of control parameters in order to minimize a given objective function. After discretizing the corresponding partial differential equation models via the Godunov scheme, we detail the computation of the gradient of the discretized system with respect to the control parameters and show that the complexity of its computation scales linearly with the number of discrete state variables for networks of small vertex degree. The method is applied to solve the problem of coordinated ramp metering on freeway networks. Numerical simulations on the I15 freeway in California demonstrate an improvement in performance and running time compared to existing methods.