More lighting coming to highway
Published 5:35 pm Thursday, December 27, 2018
- Construction crews were busy pouring the foundation for high mast lights to be installed on Memorial Boulevard between the Texas 73 cloverleaf and FM 365 on Dec. 12. The project will kick back into gear on Jan. 2 with a projected end date in the spring. Mary Meaux/The News
Motorists along a section of Memorial Boulevard will be seeing things in a better light, so to speak.
The Texas Department of Transportation is in the process of installing a total of 24 high mast lights — 19 will be in the area of the Texas 73 cloverleaf down Memorial to FM 365 and five will be along Interstate 10 at Walden Road in Beaumont, TxDOT Beaumont District Public Information Officer Sarah Dupre said.
The lighting project comes in at $2.25 million and includes all 24.
“The project should be finished some time in the spring,” Dupre said.
The lights will be the same as those along the Texas 73/U.S. 69 cloverleaf that went up in August 2013 as part of TxDOT’s safety enhancement plan. Other lights of this sort are near the Jefferson County Correctional Facility area in the 5000 block of U.S. 69 in Beaumont.
Each of the high mast lights is 150-foot tall and has six LED lights around a ring. The ring can come down so lights can be changed when needed, she said.
Workers using heavy equipment lined a portion of Memorial Boulevard at the Jimmy Johnson Boulevard exit a few weeks ago as they poured the foundation to the lights. Work has stopped temporarily due to the holidays and will start back up on Jan. 2, she added.
