Light arches illuminate Interstate 10 again

The Texas Department of Transportation has brought back some brightly-colored features that once illuminated a portion of Interstate 10.

The light arches along the eastbound lanes of I-10 have returned and not just for the holidays, TxDot said it is permanent.

It has been about five years since the arches were lit up.

Spokeswoman for TxDoT, Blanca Del Valle said it became too expensive to maintain the fiber optic lights, costing up to $100,000 a year.

“We kept having problems with the arches and the maintenance was extremely expensive,” said Del Valle.

Del Valle said when the the I-10 aesthetics project came around Tx-DoT took the opportunity to use some of the funding to repaint and replace some the lighting.

“Now they’re LED’s and now it’s going to be much more inexpensive to maintain,” said Del Valle.

She said until the lights are up and running for a couple of months, Tx-DoT will have a better idea on the cost to maintain.

Tx-DoT will continue to fund the arches that were originally put up for a reason, not only for aesthetics.

“Our previous designer was tasked to put something up that would divide I-10 from the railroad, that would be something nice to look at,” said Del Valle.