By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Drivers in Alabaster soon will notice more visibility in the city’s major intersections, as the City Council agreed to allow Alabama Power to upgrade dozens of street lights to LED during a recent meeting.

Council members voted unanimously during their Jan. 7 meeting to enter into a 36-month agreement with the power company to upgrade 89 street lights at 22 intersections in the city from high pressure sodium to white LED lights. The city has an option to extend the agreement by up to one year after 36 months.

The contract covers the street lights on poles in the city’s major intersections, not the traffic lights in the intersections.

Through the agreement, Alabama Power will upgrade the lights, provide electricity to the fixtures and then assume maintenance of the lights during the contract period at a price of about $1,740 per month.

Currently, the city pays Alabama Power $1,200 per month to provide electricity to the street light fixtures, but the city is responsible for maintaining the lights.

“In essence, this would be a wash from a budgetary standpoint because the city has to maintain the lights now. Under the new agreement, if a light goes out, we will call Alabama Power and they will change it,” Alabaster City Administrator Brian Binzer said during a Jan. 3 work session. “This includes every major intersection in the city.”

This marks the second agreement the city has signed with Alabama Power to upgrade light fixtures in the city, as it voted in late 2018 to enter into a similar contract with the company to upgrade lighting in the Propst Promenade to LED.

Alabama Power likely will begin converting the Promenade lights in the next few weeks, Binzer said.