Sedona residents have the opportunity to choose the future appearance of State Route 89A as it cuts through West Sedona.
Will 42 high-pressure sodium lights arch 45 feet above the roadway?
Or will 136 Monterey-style metal halide lights similar to those along State Route 179 give West Sedona a feeling of other small town corridors around Arizona?
Or will Sedona be among the first cities in the state to try out 135 light-emitting diode lights?
Arizona Department of Transportation officials will host an open house to gather resident feedback on all 68 options Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Sedona Public Library, from 4 to 7 p.m. Staff will discuss the options, answer questions and show artist renderings and area maps on how to improve safety along the roadway.
Open house participants will be asked to fill out a public questionnaire on general topics such as preferred height, arm length, fixture type, light type, wattage, quantity of poles
and the cost to install and maintain.
ADOT would handle the bulk of the installation costs, which range from $1.4 million to $4.9 million. The cost to the city could be as little as $147,000 or as much as $3.2 million.
ADOT will pay for a stoplight at Andante plus $2 million for the streetlights project. Anything over the projected costs will be paid for by
the city, ADOT Public Involvement Director Teresa Welborn said.
The goal is to prevent further pedestrian accidents and bicycle collisions that have claimed four lives over the last decade.
Three deaths took place in the vicinity of Andante Drive and State Route 89A, an intersection at which ADOT already plans on building the stoplight next year.
A fourth pedestrian was struck and killed near Dry Creek Road.
ADOT officials previously presented an overview of the lighting options to Sedona City Council and residents at an informational work session Oct. 28. Public comment was generally negative as 23 residents spoke out against installing any lights. There was little feedback offered on the options themselves.
ADOT is legally obligated to provide for the safety of the highway as the owner of State Route 89A, Sedona City Councilwoman Nancy Scagnelli said during that meeting.
“ADOT has a nighttime safety pedestrian issue that we need to address,” Welborn said. “The 2006 study recommended installing lighting to address nighttime safety issues.”
Even if City Council were to withdraw from the project, as Councilman Cliff Hamilton asked about during the work session, ADOT would still be obligated to install safety measures on the highway.
The ADOT standard would incorporate a minimum of 68, 35-foot tall high-pressure sodium lights with 20-foot arms holding Cobra fixtures spaced 355 feet apart.
ADOT will use the feedback garnered from the open house, in-person and online questionnaires, previous meetings with City Council and e-mails to narrow down the options and begin to move forward.
