City to replace streetlights with LED bulbs

Within 10 months, Pittsburgh hopes to replace about 3,000 streetlights in the city's business districts with LED bulbs that are brighter and cheaper to light.

City Council on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to the city's first lighting code, which Councilman Bill Peduto said will provide "light equity" -- meaning that all neighborhoods will be lighted equally. He cited Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside as one area that is over-lighted.

Some areas "have streetlights on every pole, and others have just one light at an intersection," Peduto said.

Pittsburgh would be the latest community in western Pennsylvania to upgrade its streetlights with LED technology. In 2009, New Kensington received a $213,000 federal grant to replace nearly 180 lights. City Clerk Dennis Scarpiniti said the city saves about $2,000 a month on its utility bills, but he added that he was unsure how much the LED lights contributed to that savings. The city locks in its utility rates.

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration has been working for more than two years on plans to upgrade streetlights. Peduto hopes the city would start seeking bids for the lights' replacement in June, and that work would begin in the fall.

The lights will be replaced throughout the city's 50 business districts. Peduto said the effort would be expanded to the rest of the city, which has nearly 40,000 streetlights, during the next few years, though funding has not been secured yet.

An $800,000 state grant would pay for some of the initial work in the business districts, Peduto said. James Sloss, the city's engineering and utilities manager, said the rest of the cost would come from the city's 2011 utility fund.

Some contract changes saved the city more than $500,000, money that can go toward the project, Sloss said.

Pittsburgh is spending about $1 million a year to maintain its streetlights and another $1.1 million on electricity, he noted.

By the time all of the lights are replaced, Sloss said, the city could be saving more than $1.3 million a year.

There are about 50 LED streetlights in the city right now, he said, including along Grandview Avenue in Mt. Washington; in Schenley Park; and along part of Walnut Street in Shadyside.