Montgomery will replace 741 failing interstate lights with 1,062 LEDs on I-65 and I-85, using a $13.4 million federal grant. The city must add $3.35 million of its own.
Montgomery has been picked for $13.4 million in federal money to replace failing lights along Interstate 65 and Interstate 85. Much of the lighting is more than 50 years old, the city said.
The exact award is $13,407,200. It comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program and was announced Oct. 30. The city gave the details in its announcement Tuesday.
What Phase 1 will do
The money pays for Phase 1 of the city’s I-65 and I-85 Interstate Lighting Modernization Initiative. According to the city, the work will:
- replace 741 old light fixtures with 1,062 LED lights
- make it safe for crews to reach the lights for repairs again
- add wireless monitoring, so crews learn of an outage faster
- cover 15 construction areas and 7.9 miles of interstate, including the I-65/I-85 interchange
“Every resident and visitor traveling through Montgomery deserves roadways that help them get home safely,” Mayor Steven L. Reed said.
Why the lights fail
An engineering study for the city found that much of the lighting has outlived its design life. That includes the poles, wiring, service panels and other electrical parts.
The study found widespread outages, uneven lighting and old equipment that is hard to repair. Many of the tall high-mast poles have lowering mechanisms that no longer work. That means crews cannot safely bring the lights down to the ground to fix them, the city said.
The crash record
The Phase 1 stretches are on the high-injury network in the Montgomery Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Safety Action Plan.
The federal award notice counted 32 crashes that killed or seriously injured someone on these stretches from 2019 through 2023. Eight of them were fatal. Of 49 crashes on the corridors that were reviewed, 19 happened in the dark, the city said.
The Federal Highway Administration lists roadway lighting as a proven way to cut crashes.
Who pays
The grant covers 80% of the Phase 1 cost of $16,759,000. The city must put up the rest, $3,351,800, from non-federal money.
Phase 1 is only part of a larger plan. The city’s full proposal, drawn up with Montgomery firm Garner & Associates Engineering, comes to about $38.2 million over five phases. It runs along I-65 from the Clay Street and Herron Street exit to the Highway 80 interchange. On I-85 it runs from the I-65 interchange to Chantilly Parkway.
When work starts
There is no start date yet. The city must first sign a grant agreement with the Federal Highway Administration. No federal money can be spent and no grant-funded work can begin until then. The city said it will share a construction schedule as the project moves ahead.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes yet. There are no lane closures tied to this project for now.
- Darker stretches should get brighter. The new LED lights are meant to fix outages and uneven lighting on I-65 and I-85 through the city.
- Outages should be fixed faster, once wireless monitoring is in place.
- Work zones will come later. We will add closures to our road construction and closures page once the city publishes a schedule.
To report a problem to the city in the meantime, see who to call at City Hall.
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