Atlanta might spend up to $750,000 on a study of its lighting infrastructure amid efforts to reinforce the city’s public safety operations.
The Atlanta Department of Transportation on Wednesday asked the City Council’s transportation committee to accept a resolution that would authorize Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to hire the Georgia Power Company to perform the study. The committee passed the resolution, so it might be approved by the full council at their next meeting on July 6.
Georgia Power would perform the study because the company has the capability to locate, count, and assess the quality of the city’s outdoor lighting poles and other lighting-related assets, according to the resolution.
Bottoms announced in April that the city plans to install 10,000 streetlights in areas of the city with high rates of traffic crashes and crime. That work will mostly occur in Southwest Atlanta because that area has “a historic underinvestment in streetlights,” according to the city.
The City Council passed an ordinance this month that would provide $1 million toward the mayor’s plan to increase Atlanta’s streetlighting footprint. It remains to be seen when Bottoms will sign off on that initiative, according to the lighting study resolution.
Funding from the city’s proposed lighting study would come from several accounts, including Atlanta’s General Fund, the Operations & Maintenance Administration account, the Utility and Street Lights account, and the Highway & Street Administration account.
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