Livingston To Explore Process Of Upgrading Traffic Lights At Two Intersections

Livingston Board of Alderman approved the purchase of new traffic signals Monday night to pad its inventory.

This comes as part of a larger process to potentially do some upgrades at two intersections of the city. Fire Chief Rocky Dial said that after storms destroyed two lights at the McDonalds intersection, it’s been a struggle to maintain fixes.

“The issue that we have is that was a such a long span that the lights were on when the wind blows they get to bouncing and they just bust,” Dial said. “We’ve looked at doing aluminum still with the plastic lights on them, but now we’re having problems keeping the lights at the proper height.”

Dial said that they are also looking for upgrades for the intersection at Hilham Highway. He said that the wiring on it is starting to deteriorate, and they would need to rewire the whole intersection.

Dial said that the city could look at getting metal mast arms as opposed to the wood poles and wires that come out of the ground from the weight. Alderman Kelly Coleman suggested other options that could prevent the city from having to do more than it needs to.

“The best option would be to anchor in using probably somebody like Stansell or ourselves,” Coleman said. “To anchor in a new aluminum pole in concrete and hang the guy-wire on that. Then you don’t have to have the support wire that holds up the wooden telephone pole up there.”

Dial said that he was unable to get an estimate on that price because many estimates require engineering first.

Dial said that after speaking with TDOT Traffic Engineer Alan Wolfe, there is no money from the state to cover this work. Mayor Curtis Hayes said that the total for the project could cost some $500,000.