Middleburg Heights to replace traffic signal poles

Middleburg Heights traffic light poles like this one have deteriorated through the years due to salt damage and will be replaced. (Beth Mlady/special to cleveland.com) MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City

Middleburg Heights traffic light poles like this one have deteriorated through the years due to salt damage and will be replaced. (Beth Mlady/special to cleveland.com)

MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City Council approved legislation at its Jan. 10 meeting to begin engineering work in advance of the anticipated summer replacement of traffic signal support poles.

The Streets Committee had discussed at length an engineering services proposal the previous evening.

One support pole toppled in 2021 and three others needed to be replaced at that time due to structural deficiencies. Road salt on pole bases most frequently is the culprit, leading to corrosion.

Director of Public Service Jim Herron previously said original pole installations dated to at least the mid-1990s.

TMS (Transportation Management Services) Engineers Inc. submitted its proposal to Herron last November to analyze certain intersections along Bagley Road, including those at Craigmere Drive, Fry Road, Middlebrook Boulevard, the Middleburg Heights Community Center, the fire station entrance and the Municipal Center entrance.

Plans and specifications will be prepared so that bids can be solicited to “furnish and install decorative signal supports, signal heads, pedestrian signals, pushbuttons, emergency vehicle preemption devices and wiring,” according to the TMS proposal.

“It will be a very nice, much more decorative look for our municipal campus,” Herron told the Streets Committee. “I would almost call it Phase 1 of our Central Park project, because our plan isn’t just for that side of the street. It’s going to be for both sides.”

TMS will examine current pole foundations “to determine if they have sufficient capacity and physical features to accommodate the new design criteria for mast arm type signal support.”

The new poles will be galvanized and aluminum powder coated “so they won’t rust,” Herron said.

The fee for TMS Engineers’ professional engineering services is $45,800. Herron estimated light support pole replacements throughout the city will cost $400,000.

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Middleburg Heights to replace traffic signal poles