State to Shut Off Some Street Lights

In an effort to save thousands of dollars, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation is planning on shutting off streetlights across the state, including in Concord.

According to state and local officials, the NHDOT must meet a $140,000 mandated reduction of its $983,000 utility budget and is shutting off 3,000 streetlights in order to cut costs. Each streetlight costs between $28 and $38 per month to run.

A spreadsheet provided by the NHDOT shows that the state has authority over nearly 150 streetlights in Concord, all serviced by Unitil. Most are at interchanges of the Interstate highway systems. While they are not through analyzing all of the streetlights in Concord, according to the spreadsheet, transportation officials will shut off some lights.

Some of the locations include seven lights at the I-89 and Clinton Street intersection; two lights at the I-93 and Exit 16 intersection near Mountain Road; and eight lights at the I-93 and Exit 17 intersection. In the spreadsheet, the state noted that lights at the Hannah Dustin Park and Ride and the Clinton Street/I-89 Park and Ride would remain on.

Concord’s City Engineer Ed Roberge said he and the city were aware that the state was considering shutting off some lighting near the Interstate intersections. In many cases, he said, studies have shown that there is more than enough lighting, in fact, overlighting and redundancy, in many of these areas. Roberge said, in many cases, keeping 60 percent of the poles that may be accessibly lit would be enough lighting for the interchanges.

Roberge said both the city and state officials adhere American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials lighting and highway design standards that include a set of guidelines for safety and proper illumination. He noted that at Exit 16, keeping two on and one off on the ramps or bridge road across the highway would not increase risks at the interchange.

“The old way of lighting would be to flood the area with as much light as possible,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s clearly over lit. Perhaps they went back and looked at the lighting to see if we met the illumination standards … the state can save a lot of dollars shutting off some of those lights."

Roberge said he hadn’t met or spoken with state officials but in looking at the highway spreadsheet, it looked like every other or every third light would be shut off. He added that he was glad to see that the state would be continuing to light park and ride facilities, calling it a “good safety measure … we would concur with that decision.”

Currently, Concord spends a little more than $400,000 a year on about 2,200 streetlights. Roberge said that the city is also in the process of talking internally about lowering the city’s utility lighting budget by shutting off unneeded lighting, replacing bulbs with lower wattages, LEDs, mercury vapor, or other technologies.

“Quite frankly, we will probably be doing that sometime soon,” he said.

Roberge said the city pays a regulated tariff for all the street lighting. Most are not individually metered. The city is in regular discussions with Unitil about the quality of the light, the bulbs used, and whenever they go out and need to be replaced, he said.