AGENDA INFORMATION SHEET
DEPARTMENT: Engineering
CM/ACM: Mario Canizares
DATE: July 10, 2017
SUBJECT
Title
Receive a report, hold a discussion, and provide a recommendation for a lighting maintenance agreement for the Texas Department of Transportation's 35Express project.
Body
BACKGROUND
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is nearing completion of a portion of the 35Express project and has asked the City of Denton whether proposed highway lighting will be covered under a Safety Lighting Agreement or a Continuous Lighting Agreement. After consultation with City Engineering and Legal, Denton Municipal Electric calculated estimated electric costs for lighting included in TxDOT's IH-35E widening project. The Denton City Council will have the choice of deciding what type of lighting will be installed on a stretch of IH-35E within the city limits.
All lighting on the interstate will be installed by TxDOT and then ownership will transfer to the City for maintenance. Safety lighting, as defined by the TxDOT Highway Illumination Manual requires lighting at interchanges, intersections and other points of nighttime hazard. Continuous lighting is defined as providing uniform illumination on all main lanes and direct connections and complete lighting for all interchanges. Many cities along IH-35E included in the project have elected to install continuous lighting in addition to the required safety lighting in order to create safer driving conditions.
Although both safety and continuous lighting are installed by TxDOT and maintained by the City, the monthly bill for electricity usage will vary by lighting type. Safety lighting monthly bills will be covered by TxDOT as this type of lighting is required. If the City Council elects to have TxDOT install continuous lighting, the monthly electricity bills for all lighting will be paid by the City. Safety lighting for this particular stretch of IH-35E will require 114 lamps and 56 wallpacks and the electricity...
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