The Alaska Department of Transportation has announced plans to install new LED street lights along a 5-mile section of North Tongass Highway.
According to DOT, that section of highway between Kian Street and South Point Higgins 
Road has seen numerous crashes. Between 2006 and 2010, there were 63 reported vehicle accidents, four of them serious and one fatal.
Recent reconstruction of the highway helped made the roadway safer, but lighting wasn’t improved during that reconstruction, according to DOT.
The LED street lighting project will cost about $4.2 million, but DOT officials say that more than 90 percent of that will be paid for using federal funds.
Construction could begin as soon as this fall, and is scheduled for completion by the end of next August, according to DOT.
