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Over a five-year period Bradford will replace 17,000 lampposts and 59,000 lights with LED lights controlled by a central management system (CMS). The CMS will allow remote control of on/off times.
The new lights are half the price to maintain compared to the older orange bulbs and even report themselves when faulty. And LED lamps last six times longer than the old low pressure sodium lamps, which will stop being produced in 2020.
Total cost of the project is £45m. The smart street light project is getting £15.12m from Salix Finance, which provides interest free loans for public sector energy saving initiatives. The rest will be borrowed.
The city council has handed Costain a £2m contract to manage the programme.
The project will reduce the council's street lighting power consumption by 65% and its carbon emissions by more than 6000 tonnes per year. The council says that it expects to save approximately £2m per year in energy costs and ‘£189m over 50 years’.
The street lighting will be connected to an Internet of Things (IoT) system that Costain is also helping with, to enable monitoring of road temperatures, air pollution, road gully condition and river levels to support maintenance and capital works.
The new lighting columns could also facilitate the future introduction of a network of electric car charging points in areas where there is only on street parking available.
Costain transportation director Sue Kershaw said: “In these unprecedented times, where Covid-19 has brought much of the economy to a standstill, local authorities are under huge pressure to continue delivery of critical programmes of work for their communities. Our relationship with Bradford Council, which focuses on partnership and outcomes, has allowed us to reach back into our organisation to deliver additional capacity, capability, resilience and flexibility in a range of areas to support our client and keep the transport infrastructure services working.”
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