Streetlight Replacement Underway in Fremont Neighborhoods

FREMONT, CA — As part of the City’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce costs, and improve roadway visibility through the Vision Zero 2020 program, the Fremont City Council in May approved a contract to upgrade all streetlights to LED technology. Replacement of over 14,000 streetlights is under way with completion anticipated by the end of the year.

The project kicked off on October 6 along Fremont Boulevard between Peralta and Washington boulevards. This section is anticipated to be completed in approximately two weeks.

On Monday, October 10, installation of new LED streetlights begins in Fremont neighborhoods. Crews will be upgrading streetlights in the following neighborhoods: Lakes and Birds, Ardenwood, and Northgate. The LED streetlight upgrade project will continue throughout all Fremont neighborhoods throughout the year.

Why are the streetlights being replaced?

LED street lights provide a number of benefits, including improvements in safety, reductions in maintenance costs, and greenhouse gas emission reductions:

1. Improved light quality: The City's existing street lights contain HPS (high pressure sodium) lamps. HPS lighting is known for its warm yellowish-orange glow, while LEDs (light emitting diodes) provide a natural light color, similar to that of moonlight. In addition to its yellow color, the light provided by HPS has a very low color rendering index (CRI), making it difficult to differentiate between colors of similar hue, especially in the dark. LEDs, on the other hand, offer a broad spectrum of light, allowing one to see a full range of colors even at night. Finally, LEDs are a point source light, meaning that they illuminate only the areas that they are engineered to illuminate, helping to reduce light pollution and maintain a dark sky. In addition, this allows LEDs to provide better coverage on the ground than their HPS counterparts, helping to eliminate dark areas between poles and making our streets and sidewalks safer for drivers and pedestrians, and aligning with our Vision Zero 2020 goals.
2. Reduced energy consumption: LEDs use approximately 1/2 to 2/3 less energy than their HPS counterparts, making them an environmentally preferable choice. Converting all of the City's street lights to LED is estimated to reduce the City's energy consumption by nearly 4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, lowering greenhouse gas emissions accordingly by 775 metric tons and saving the City $590,000 on its annual electric utility bills.
3. Longer lifetime: Our current HPS lights have an average lifetime of about 25,000 hours, whereas LEDs can last over 100,000 hours. This means that there will be overall fewer lighting outages, and that the City will not need to replace the new LEDs for approximately 20 years.
4. Reduced maintenance costs: Maintenance costs for the upkeep and repair of the City's 16,000+ streetlight inventory is no easy task. With a new inventory of lights that will not require replacing for the decades to come, the City will be able to save over $280,000 annually on its streetlight maintenance costs.

Announcement and photo from City of Fremont