B&B Electrical and Utility Contractors lineman Timothy Hale installs a new traffic light at Drummond and Belmont streets Tuesday.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[9/17/03]Traffic light assemblies continued to be replaced around Vicksburg Tuesday, with plans to install new street signs at some city intersections as early as next week.

Most of the city’s traffic lights, including all those along Washington Street and many along Halls Ferry Road and Cherry Street, have been updated, said Frank Powell, who was handling the project for B&B Electrical and Utility Contractors of Brandon.

The signals were being retrofitted for installation of LED displays, which are both brighter and more energy-efficient than the incandescent bulbs that have been in use. Powell said the work began early last week.

“They should really know a difference driving through here,” Powell said of drivers.

When changes are complete, all traffic signals, including those that now have 8-inch heads, will have 12-inch heads, Powell said. After the installation, all signals will also be tethered from the bottom “to help out when you get bad storms,” Powell added.

The work is part of a city plan to install LED displays on signals at 45 intersections along Clay, Washington, Drummond and Cherry streets, Halls Ferry Road and Mission 66.

The signal work is expected to cost about $160,000, with $100,000 funded through federal grants that were to have been lost if work had not begun on the project by the end of this month, city officials have said.

City officials have estimated that the change will save in monthly electricity costs about $540, or 35 percent of the estimated monthly cost of $1,540.

The LED displays, which take their name from the light-emitting diodes they use, can pay for themselves in energy-cost savings in about two years, Powell said.

Also planned for some intersections are overhead, back-lighted street signs.

“The vast majority are going to hang off of the tether cables,” Powell said of the signs.

Other signs, however, are to be mounted on new poles, of which B&B is set to begin installing 19 next week, Powell said. He added that the signs are on order, but he did not know when they are expected to be delivered.

Taken as a whole, the cost to city taxpayers of the current project, including traffic signals and new signs, is expected to be about $186,000. That amount excludes grant funds.

Of the LED installations, Powell said B&B has completed others in Biloxi, Hattiesburg and Meridian, and has plans to do similar work in Jackson.