Challenges of reporting, finding, repairing street lights in southern Colorado
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- As The Road Warrior starts its fifth month of coverage, Monday's report focuses not on what's on the road, but what's above it.
Overhead street lights.
Several viewers have asked why they see so many non-working street lights across Colorado Springs, and why it takes so long to repair them -- leaving parts of some neighborhoods and highways in the dark, and raising safety concerns.
Steve Berry, a spokesman with Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU), explains the challenges involved in maintaining the city's 30,000 street lights.
"There's about seven crews doing 350-plus repairs each month on the street light system," he said. "So, there's a lot of maintenance going on out there. It's just that there's so many of them to keep track of. Generally, it's about a three-week turnaround, depending on the demand and how many street lights we may have out at a given time, or in need of maintenance."
Berry said that in addition to street lights that are simply burned out or shorted out, vehicle crashes take down another 250 light poles annually.
"Crews also have to acquire the necessary permits to do the work, and set up traffic control to do the work safely," he said.
According to the city's website, around $4 million annually is allocated for street lights; CSU is responsible for installation, maintenance and repair.
El Paso County maintains street lights at 54 intersections, with preventive maintenance done twice a year and replacements or upgrades performed as needed.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) maintains 1,200 street lights in Region 2, covering 14 counties in southeastern Colorado.
"I would say that probably every day, we're we're chasing down burnt-out light bulbs," said Jason Nelson, a CDOT traffic engineer. "But we do we find that we lose about 150 light poles a year just from errant vehicles. So, we're actually replacing about 10% -- a little bit more than 10% -- of our lights just because they get knocked over. But replacing light bulbs, that's pretty much a daily activity."
Some Pueblo viewers have complained about street lights that they say have been out for an extended time period at the I-25 and Pueblo Boulevard interchange -- an area that CDOT is studying for future safety improvements because of heavier traffic generated by the opening of a Maverik gas station and convenience store.
Black Hills Energy maintains street lights in Pueblo.
Officials ask that citizens report non-functioning street lights to their local municipality or utility as soon as possible -- and to be patient, because the sheer volume of maintenance means it will take time for repair crews to respond.
Crews try to repair older sodium bulbs with new LED lights that are brighter and more energy-efficient; but funds to do that are limited, and it happens only gradually.
