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MDOT studying lighting alternatives after copper thefts; expands litter pickups and volunteer cleanup programs
Summary
Mississippi Department of Transportation officials said on the Extra Mile podcast they are pursuing engineering and operational responses to repeated copper thefts from highway lighting while expanding litter‑pickup and volunteer programs in the Jackson area.
Mississippi Department of Transportation officials told the Extra Mile podcast they are studying how to curb repeated copper theft from highway lighting and are expanding litter and beautification efforts in the Jackson metro area.
"We have spent money, hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing [copper wiring]," Commissioner Willie Simmons said, describing repeated thefts that remove wiring and leave lights nonfunctional. MDOT has hired an engineering firm identified on the program as GAVA to study metro‑area lighting options and recommend ways to reduce reliance on copper or make copper harder to steal. "The purpose of that is to have them to take a look at the entire metro area and figure out what's the best lighting we should have," Simmons said.
Simmons said MDOT is increasing maintenance and cleanup in the Jackson area. He said the agency moved its roadside mowing contract from five mowings a year to eight, covering April through November, and added a secondary contract to pick up litter during winter months when mowing does not occur. Simmons described the winter pickup contract as being worth about $110,000 and said MDOT also relies on volunteer groups who collect trash along interstates and receive some local business support.
To bolster trash pickup efforts, Simmons said MDOT is negotiating a memorandum of understanding with the Hinds County sheriff's office and the city of Jackson to use supervised offenders for cleanup. Under that arrangement MDOT would reimburse the sheriff or city up to $50,000 a year for supervision costs and could provide a truck when available to support the program.
Simmons also discussed other measures and a now-discussed idea — mentioned on the podcast — to electrify poles as a theft deterrent; he said there were legal questions about such an approach and framed it as a suggestion rather than an adopted policy.
Provenance: The podcast segments discussing theft, the GAVA lighting study and litter/beautification programs run from about 864.68 seconds through roughly 1171.34 seconds in the episode.
