Green Light for New Traffic Signals
Sep 05, 2024 03:15PM ● By Angela UnderwoodYUBA CITY, CA (MPG) - Elected officials approved a little more than $1 million in signal hardware upgrades, which are streetlights.
On Aug. 20, Public Works and Development Services Director Ben Moody said that a California Local Highway Safety Improvement grant will fund the new 53-light citywide scheme.
“This is actually a fun one for me,” Moody said. “It is a visible project.”
The upgrades include enlarging the traffic light bulbs from eight to 12 inches, removing and replacing signal backplates to yellow, installing reflective tape around backplates and replacing existing street name signs with LED internally illuminated street name signs.
While Yuba City will replace 35 lights, Caltrans will remove 18 and replace them with Type IX Street Name Signs made with diamond-grade reflective sheeting.
“We are going to clean up the rest of the city with the bird and the logo, so they match,” Moody said. “That’s one of my bucket list items I have been trying to get across for a while, so I am looking forward to that.”
Before telling the project timeline, Moody said that each streetlight “is a little bit different but it’s really putting that reflective tape and fixing the illuminated street name signs.
“We are looking to advertise in September, contract award in October, construction begins in the fall through the winter, and hopefully done in the spring,” Moody said.
Moody told officials that he was requesting “approval of the specs and authorize us to bid” $800,000 for different types of signals, depending on the location. According to Moody, about $571,000 is allotted for city lights and about $510,000 for the Caltrans portion.
“The city is going to use all of their money, and we may be a little lighter on the Caltrans money, but depending on how the bids come in, we can maybe shift some of those buckets of money to cover it,” Moody said. “We will break that down when we return to recommend an award.”