LED lighting

[Buffaboy]

Do any highways use LEDs for lighting? I know some traffic lights do, but I can't say I can pinpoint a highway with LEDs.

[AsphaltPlanet]

yup, LED lighting is becoming common in some areas of Ontario

[lordsutch]

GDOT has been installing it on some new installations, notably at roundabout projects, often with solar panels to feed in to the grid during the day.

[DrSmith]

It's been installed in some locations along the highways in the Springfield, MA area

[Mdcastle]

The new I-35W bridge was the first application of LED lighting on the interstate system.
Now every last non-high mast light on the Twin Cities freeways are being converted to LED.

[cl94]

NYSTA has them on I-190. I've seen them elsewhere, but I'm rarely places that have lighting. NYSDOT Regions 1 and 5 hate lights.

[Big John]

WisDOT is now using them on freeway installations.

[Mohkfry]

INDOT is testing LED lighting on US 35 in LaPorte, Indiana. Other than that there isn't any LED lighting on main highways where the lighting is maintained by INDOT.

US 20 in Gary recently got LED street lights on the eastbound lanes, but they are city maintained, not state maintained.

Highland, Indiana tested LED lighting on Ridge Rd. in front of the PD a few years back, but they switched them back to HPS lamps about 6 months after they were installed.

The only places I've seen that uses LED streetlight consistantly is Kingsford Heights, Indiana,  and Winimac, Indiana. Both lighting systems are owned by Nipsco (northern Indiana utility company), and not the state. Every streetlight in and around both towns are LED.

[traffic light guy]

90% of signal installations have been LED as of 2000

[jeffandnicole]

The NJ Turnpike has plenty of LED lighting

[Mr_Northside]

I noticed quite a few scattered about in Maryland.

[Pink Jazz]

Some cities in Arizona are using LED street lighting; I know Gilbert is one of them.  Tempe, on the other hand, chose to use induction lighting instead, since the city is skeptical about the life of LED lighting in our hot desert climate.

[MarkF]

I'm assuming the newer white light (as opposed to orange) streetlights Caltrans is using are LEDs.

[roadfro]

City of Las Vegas, NV has converted all street lights to LED lighting, except the luminares at signalized intersections which remain the yellow-ish sodium vapor. By contrast, City of Henderson went with induction lighting (while I don't think North Las Vegas or Clark County have done any converting).

In Reno, NV, the city has converted many (if not all) street lights at signalized intersections to LEDs and use LEDs at new intersections, but has left regular street lights alone.


Nevada DOT has been converting street lighting to LED. All street lights on I-80 in the Reno area are now LEDs, as well as any overhead sign lighting that exists (most signs are not lit). The newest use of LED I've seen NDOT do is on the US 95 northwest widening project in Las Vegas, where all the new high mast lighting fixtures are LED.

[WashuOtaku]

In North Carolina, several cities are converting street lighting to LEDs now.  NCDOT, however, only has done the same at rest area/welcome centers and have not yet expanded it onto highways.  Stop lights and other items have been LEDs for over a decade now.

[SignGeek101]

Manitoba Hydro (Manitoba's electricity utility) here in Winnipeg announced last year that all street lighting across the province will be converted to LED by 2020 (or whenever they burn out and need to be replaced). Hydro is responsible for replacing street lights as far as I know, not the city. They aren't common now though. Around the city, I'd say maybe 5% are LED lights now.

When I travelled to Alberta in August, the city of Lethbridge was completely converted to LED. Parts of the Trans-Canada east of Calgary also had LED lighting.

I have yet to see LED high mast lighting anywhere.

[jeffe]

I'm assuming the newer white light (as opposed to orange) streetlights Caltrans is using are LEDs.

Yes, Caltrans now uses LED lights in new installations and is replacing sodium lights with LEDs as they burn out.

LED lights were first tested on the Richmond-San Rafael and Carquinez Bridges in 2008.  LED lights are especially good for bridges because the wind and vibration from traffic cause the sodium lights to burn out more quickly.

At the Bay Bridge toll plaza the new high mast lights were originally supposed to be Metal Halide but the design was switched to LED before installation. 

Sign lighting on the new Bay Bridge span are LED as opposed to induction used elsewhere by Caltrans.  However, the Caltrans plan is to now use Type 11 reflective sheeting on new signs which are bright enough to not require external lighting.

Finally, Caltrans is starting to use LED lighting in tunnels.

[roadfro]

Nevada DOT has been converting street lighting to LED. All street lights on I-80 in the Reno area are now LEDs, as well as any overhead sign lighting that exists (most signs are not lit). The newest use of LED I've seen NDOT do is on the US 95 northwest widening project in Las Vegas, where all the new high mast lighting fixtures are LED.

One other use I just remembered from NDOT: In their recent rehab project of the Carlin Tunnels and bridges on I-80, they completely replaced the original tunnel lights with a new LED lighting system that adjusts brightness based on ambient lighting levels.

[Buffaboy]

Coincidentally, NYSDOT has installed LEDs on the reconstructed section of the NY 5, 8, and 12 Arterial:

[KEK Inc.]

WSDOT still uses HPS on freeways.  WA-9 is starting to have LED installations on newer roundabouts north of Lake Stevens.  WSDOT did a pilot test on US-101 in Olympia for freeway LED lighting a couple of years ago, but they still continue to install HPS on new freeway installations. 

SDOT is slowly phasing out AEL/GE/ITT/Hubbel HPS lights for Leotek LED Green Cobraheads.  The rest of King County is slowly transitioning to LEDs as well. 

[UCFKnights]

I have yet to see LED high mast lighting anywhere.

With current technology, generally the brighter they make the LED, the shorter it lasts and the less efficient it is. With HPS the opposite is true... they are much less efficient for dimmer, smaller areas and comparatively difficult to aim so much of the light gets wasted. Thus, for high mast lighting, currently LEDs are still more expensive over the estimated lifetimes.

[AsphaltPlanet]

Ontario has been experimenting with high-mast LED lighting over the past few years.  A few high mast light LED fixtures have been installed on the 407 in western Kanata, and along the 403 in Brantford.  The 407 has also recently retrofitted some conventional sodium lighting with LED fixtures along immediately west of the 400 interchange as well.


Hwy 85 in Kitchener was lit with LED lighting as part of recent reconstruction project.  This project saw the replacement of all of the pre-existing conventional mast high-pressure sodium lighting poles and fixtures.

* edit, I didn't realize I had already posted in this topic when I posted this today.

[roadfro]

I have yet to see LED high mast lighting anywhere.

In Nevada, new high mast LED lighting was installed on US 95 in Las Vegas between exits 90-95 in a recent widening project (no lighting previously on that stretch). In Reno, the I-80/US 395 interchange had its high mast lighting converted to LED fixtures within the last year or two.

[ChezeHed81]

Select stretches of Route 1 and Route 13 in Delaware have been converted to LED.

[mspanner442]

The newly reconstructed interchange of US 41 and the Lloyd Expressway in Evansville, IN has LED lighting installed.