MNDOT replacing streetlights with more efficient LEDs

New­er, whit­er lights are one their way to Minnesota roads.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation an­nounced a plan Mon­day to re­place more than 28,500 street­light bulbs with LED lights.

Because they are more energy efficient and need replacing less often, the LEDs — short for light-emit­ting di­odes — will sup­pos­ed­ly save the state $1.45 mil­lion each year.

The new bulbs are ex­pect­ed to last about 18 years on av­er­age (vs. a four-year life span for the current ones), as well as pro­vide whit­er light.

The white light tends to be pref­er­a­ble for driv­ers be­cause it al­lows peo­ple to see more de­tail, said Sue Zarling, traf­fic e­lec­tri­cal sys­tems en­gi­neer for MNDOT, add­ing that po­lice tend to pre­fer white lights for sim­i­lar rea­sons.

Lights along road­ways and bridg­es, but not tun­nels or rest areas, will be replaced, said Mike Gerbensky, Metro District sys­tem light­ing and management en­gi­neer.

Twin Cities resi­dents can ex­pect the switch to be made by the end of the year, but re­place­ment of about 10,000 fix­tures across the state is expected to take until 2020.

Converting metro lights is ex­pect­ed to cost $10 million to $11 mil­lion, Gerbensky said, and is contracted to Egan Company, a Brook­lyn Park-based con­trac­tor. The rest of the state will be served by MNDOT crews.

Bulb testing done by Minneapolis and Hennepin County in 2010 found that LED lights use about half the pow­er re­quired to achieve sim­i­lar light lev­els and give off less heat, but are more cost­ly than the oth­er two bulbs test­ed. The LED bulbs outper­formed oth­er com­peti­tors in light dis­per­sal and length of main­te­nance needs.

Ben Farniok