WM Utility to replace I-40/55 Interchange lights

WM Utility to replace I-40/55 Interchange lights

New, longer- lasting fixtures will improve visibilty, increase safety

news@theeveningtimes.com

When most folks hear the word “mongoose,” they might think of the children’s story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, or maybe the popular brand of dirt-bike. But it was a mongoose of a different type that West Memphis Utilities Electrical Supervisor Foster Rash was discussing at this month’s Utility Commission meeting.

Rash proposed the purchase of flexible tilt-head LED lighting for the Interstate Interchange running through the city. The $80,000 purchase of the new fixtures known, as mongoose- and cobrastyled lamps, was approved by utilities commissioners during the board’s February meeting.

The city is responsible for the lighting along the highways inside the city limits.

When lights need changed, it’s expensive to close traffic lanes and set up a safe work zone with barrels and electronic message board signs. The work also poses a high risk for crews performing the arduous task.

With that in mind, the move was made to replace 210 freeway lights with longer lasting lighting.

Fewer repair trips means lower exposure to interstate accidents, Rash explained.

The lighting itself can be aimed to cover more area so the overall results are safer for night-time drivers, too.

The purchase included 100 mongoose tilt-head LED lights to aim at the lanes and 110 fixed-aim cobrahead roadway lights for overpasses and ramps.

Six bids for each type of light were received which met Arkansas Highway Transportation Department lumen specifications to replace high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights. The older lights flood an area and the new lights will actually be focused to cover lane areas only.

“The older HPS run through the middle only get two lanes,” said Rash. “We will aim to get as much lane as we can with the new ones.”

Work begins in April and will take about a month.

The electric department will test each light before they are approved for installation. Then the lane closure needs to be scheduled which costs cost $3,500. The middle lanes will be done first followed by the ramp lighting.

“We need to test each one prior to install,” said Rash. “The highway department requested we work at night.”

Nighttime work has a lower traffic count and offers the chance for pin pointing the aim and provides an instant quality check as the lights go up.

The portion of lighting east of Ingram Blvd. is out completely. Rash promised results with the replacement project.

“There is a stretch east of Ingram in the middle that is all out,” said Rash. “That’s a wiring problem. We’ll have to pull out old wire and put in new to get that up and burning.”

By John Rech