Sparta Upgrading Traffic Lights For Future Safety Capabilities

Sparta has been awarded a $50,000 T-DOT grant to upgrade traffic signals in the city.

City Administrator Brad Hennessee said eight lights will get new signal controllers and monitors that protect against malfunctions.

“It has some age on it, but we are trying to prepare ourselves to go after another grant project,” Hennessee said. “It’s where it shuts down the traffic signals for emergency vehicles to prevent accidents.”

The project includes a $30,000 city match. Hennessee said the upgrades will make the lights compatible with traffic signal preemption. Hennessee said the technology detects audible sirens and will increase safety when emergency vehicles cross.

“I’ve been looking at preemption ever since I have been here,” Hennessee said. “It is expensive, but it’s a public safety issue a lot of small cities don’t have money to address. Technology is emerging on this. Now the cutting edge technology actually reads the tone of the siren. It doesn’t go on before it is needed, and it goes off after the vehicle pulls away.”

Hennessee said the city has a meeting with T-DOT on September 9th for a timeline on installation. Hennessee said the preemption system will be a separate project sometime next fiscal year after the traffic lights are upgraded.

“What we are trying to do is match a grant with the available money that T-Dot has,” Hennessee said. “It can go anywhere from nothing to a grant to the entire project. If we were to find a grant, it would be something for next budget year.”

Hennessee said the preemption system would focus on Bockman Way.