On Thursday, Utilities Kingston will install the final LED “cobra head” style light as part of the project to replace more than 10,000 standard and decorative high wattage street light heads. The new fixtures consume half the energy to provide reliable street lighting in Kingston, while minimizing light pollution and maintenance costs.

This infrastructure project has been funded in part by the Province of Ontario in partnership with the City, and received rebates from the saveONenergy RETROFIT Program.

The project was successfully completed in less than 18 months and came in under its $4 million net budget. The municipal street light upgrade was completed in-house by the same Utilities Kingston employees who take great pride in maintaining, operating and upgrading Kingston’s street lights and traffic signals. Conversion of all municipal traffic signals to LED was completed in 2012.

“Crews installed the street light fixtures at a faster rate than anticipated through the pilot project, which lowered the average installation cost per unit," says Jim Keech, C.E.O. and President of Utilities Kingston. "The success of the project is attributed to staff, who secured cost savings for tax payers, and collaborated to problem-solve issues and make improvements to existing infrastructure".

To learn more about the benefits of Kingston’s new LED streetlights, see our page on Reliable, Energy-Efficient Street Lighting.