The Dunedin City Council is conducting a trial of LED lights in three South Dunedin streets next month.

Dunedin City Council Group Manager Transport, Richard Saunders, says the trial is part of the tender process to select new LED street lights for the rest of Dunedin. It marks the start of a project to introduce a new fit-for-purpose street light system for Dunedin.

Mr Saunders says the city’s current high pressure sodium (HPS) lights are between 15 and 25 years old, are beginning to fail and need to be replaced. Switching to LEDs will save both energy and maintenance costs.

Twenty lights in Melbourne, Fawcett and Oxford Streets in South Dunedin will be converted to LED in the trial from 8 to 24 November.

These streets were chosen because they are centrally located, have lights on one side instead of two, and can be viewed from surrounding hill suburbs. Because the new light from LEDs is directed downward, there will be less light spill when LEDs are installed.

Contractors will install the trial lights at the top of power poles from 8 to 10 November. The trial will allow the staff to assess three different types of LED lights as part of the tender assessment. Selection of the final supplier is expected to occur in February 2019.

The project, a joint initiative between DCC and NZTA, will replace 15,000 streetlights across Dunedin, beginning in July 2019 and completed in December 2020. The project is estimated to cost $12 million, supported by a subsidy from the New Zealand Transport Agency. Final costs will not be known until a supplier has been selected.

More information about the trial is available at www.dunedin.govt.nz/streetlighting-trial

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