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City Installs LED Lights

Jul 15, 2016 08:50AM ● By Tori La Rue

West Jordan public works employees are in the process to changing all streetlights within the city to LED lights. They expect to complete the project mid-July. – West Jordan City

By Tori La Rue | [email protected]


West Jordan is installing 5,000 LED lights into existing street lamp fixtures throughout the city to lower the city’s carbon footprint, cut expenses and increase safety.

 Light-emitting diode lights typically get 50,000 hours of life, more than double the life span of traditional lights, and come with a 10-year warranty, although many are expected to last for 17 to 23 years, according to city staff. The LED lights use fewer watts of electricity and are less sensitive to heat changes.

 “It is a better light,” Wendell Rigby, city public works director, said. “While being energy-efficient here, we are going to save quite a bit of money, and the LEDs are actually more directed lights, so it is a safer fixture for seeing at night.”

 The light-emitting diodes will cost the city around $3.7 million in bonds, but the bond’s payments will come from energy and maintenance cost savings, and they are not expected to increase taxes. The lights will pay for themselves within eight years, according to Rigby, and subsequently will save the city around $150,000 annually.

 Three or four years ago the city received a $600,000 grant that public works used to install LED lights on city hall property and within some streetlights, but the $3.7 million bond will enable a citywide transition to LED. The replacing process began in May and is expected to continue through mid-July.

 While public works recommended the change to LED lights, Rigby said the city council was the force that pushed for the bond and LED installation. Councilmember Jeff Haaga said he was astonished to see how well-lit his street was after public works put LED lights in the streetlights near his home. The color of the lighting made it easier to see, Haaga said.

 “My wife noticed; my neighbors noticed,” Haaga said. “This councilman sees the LED efforts coming to fruition.”

 Carolyn, a West Jordan resident who requested her last name remain unpublished, said she’s noticed a difference in the brightness of the street lights by Copper Hills High School. She drives on those streets daily, and she said it’s nice to see city leaders taking steps to improve safety. City officials have not installed an LED bulb by Carolyn’s house, though, she said.

 “Our street light is actually burned out, so if they are coming around putting in new lights, that’s awesome,” she said. “We are right by a roundabout in our neighborhood, and when I get up in the morning to run the cars can’t see me if I cross through the crosswalk. We just want a light, so a new LED light would be great.”