Last year APS notified the Town of Superior that APS (and the rest of the industry) will no longer support the town’s incandescent streetlights. This leaves the town no choice but to upgrade to LED. On the bright side (pun intended), LEDs are significantly cheaper to operate ($25,000 or so less a year), and the upgrade cost of approximately $187,000 should pay for itself in under eight years. There are 417 lights in town that must be replaced.
This year the Town of Superior has received a one-time payment from the Highway Users Revenue Fund of $197,000 through legislation sponsored by Representative Cook. This will allow the town to make this upgrade without incurring any debt, and the savings on utilities will allow us to spend an additional $25,000 each year on streets maintenance.
The lights function and look a little different than the old lights. They will be brighter, but they will radiate less. This should mean that the street in front of your house is brighter, but that it will not shine as much into your yard and your windows. Many people feel that the LEDs are too bright, so to give our citizens the ability to request adjustments, the new lights will be “smart,” allowing us to decrease the illumination on specific streetlights by up to 50%. This will also allow us to decrease the illumination for special events, such as the Fourth of July fireworks, or to maintain our dark skies and beautiful starscapes.
The work is being completed by PLG, and you might have seen their trucks completing an audit of all of the streetlights. That audit is complete, and they have spent the last month designing the illumination patterns of the lights. The next phase will be the installation of the new lights. This will begin on the US 60 corridor in the next few weeks and continue for two months until every light in town is replaced. The project should be completed by early December.