LED street light upgrades nearly complete

Wairere Drive after the new LED lights were installed. Photo / Hamilton City Council

Hamilton's roll out of LED lighting in its residential streets is complete, with over 5500 street light units upgraded.

The council has installed 'warm white' LED bulbs which are less harsh on the eyes, reduce spillover glare into houses, and are considered better for nocturnal animals.
Along with residential streets, the arterial road upgrade programme is also nearing completion.

From July 2019, the remaining 2200 street lights in residential areas, the majority being in Rototuna, will be replaced with the new LED bulbs.

At the same time, councillors Ryan Hamilton and Geoff Taylor have been working to provide the same sort of lighting to Garden Place.

Mr Hamilton said he and Mr Taylor have been working with staff to see how they could light up Garden Place.

"The need is twofold.

"One is to improve the perceived and actual safety issues which have arisen, but also as it's the centre of our city," Mr Hamilton said.

"I often drive past at night and it looks dark and haunting. Six months ago we started a conversation to see how we could partner with private business to do this so it would be at no additional cost to council and ratepayers.

"There was already a budget in place to renew lights with LED, which also attracts NZTA subsidies as Garden Place is technically a road, would you believe.

"Through this design process staff have been able to utilise existing budgets and leverage a better result on the standard renewals and with improvements in lighting design and technology we can deliver a much better outcome than was planned and within existing budgets.

"This isn't the 'full monty' we were initially aiming for but we are happy to at least get the ball rolling.

"I know Garden Place has been a hot topic in recent years but I felt if we did nothing else but 'light it up' it would make a tremendous difference and I'm pleased to say this will be happening over the next 12-18 months."