The city will soon be replacing 15 downed light poles along Front Street, Mayor Eric Papenfuse announced this morning at a press conference along the 2900 block of the road.
The project is a prelude to a larger campaign to replace missing street lights across the city, as well as to upgrade approximately 6,000 existing ones to cost-saving LED bulbs.
The Front Street replacements will be partly funded by a $22,000 donation from Lighten Up Harrisburg, which in partnership with the Historic Harrisburg Association raised the money through sponsorships of its first annual “Glow Run” on June 7 this year.
The work will begin at the north end of Front and proceed with the installation of 15 poles over the next week. Installing the 29-foot poles will cost around $2,000 apiece, the administration said, with the city matching the charitable donation with labor and the cost of additional poles.
On Thursday, city engineer Wayne Martin issued a request for qualifications to design and install the LED-conversion project. The RFQ went out to 48 interested parties, Martin said, with applications due Aug. 15.
The LED bulbs are expected to generate significant cost and energy savings. In May of this year, according to the RFQ, the electric costs for the city’s 6,161 existing mercury-vapor and high-pressure sodium lights totaled around $64,000.
More information on the Glow Run and the city’s lights can be found in “Let There Be Lights,” a feature story in the June issue of TheBurg.
