The future is looking brighter and brighter for Coast highways.

Lighting projects recently have been completed on U.S. 90 in Gulfport and Biloxi, and more projects are in the works.

“The safety and aesthetic benefits to municipalities and their citizens are very apparent,” said Mickey Campassi, commercial marketing specialist, Coast Service Center. “If you go through one of these areas that is lit and then enter an area that is not lit, the difference is hard to believe. These lights will bring long-term benefits to the Coast for generations to come.”

In Gulfport, 134 high-pressure sodium, 400-watt lights have been installed on 81 poles on a stretch of U.S. 90 near the downtown business district. The project was a joint effort among the Mississippi Department of Transportation, the city of Gulfport and Mississippi Power.

“These lights will be maintained by Mississippi Power, but they will be customer-owned,” Campassi said. “The MDOT, which oversaw the widening of this part of Highway 90, paid for the lights and will turn ownership of them over to Gulfport.”

Gulfport will pay maintenance costs and a monthly charge for electricity.

Other projects in Gulfport include a plan to add lights on U.S. Highway 49 from the Turkey Creek area south to 28th Street and a proposal to add lights to another 3.6-mile stretch of U.S. 90.

In Biloxi, the city has finished a third phase of a lighting project to illuminate U.S. 90 and is considering a fourth phase. The third phase consisted of the installation of 136 high-pressure sodium, 400-watt lights on 74 poles.