The City and Colorado Springs Utilities work together to provide streetlight services to residents of Colorado Springs. The City pays about $4 million annually for Springs Utilities to operate and maintain more than 27,000 streetlights.
The mission of the City and Springs Utilities streetlights team is to own, efficiently operate and maintain and continuously improve the streetlight system, which is comprised of street lighting and associated infrastructure for all public streets within the municipal limits of the City of Colorado Springs.
How do we efficiently operate and maintain the streetlight system?
Our small but effective streetlights team responds to over 500 streetlights issues per month. Springs Utilities conducts night runs on 25 major arterial routes twice per year, resolving any issues they find. Residents can also report streetlight issues. The vast majority of streetlights issues the team resolves fall in one of the three categories below:
Outages
Knockdowns
Requesting a New or Additional Streetlight
Residents may desire additional lighting in their neighborhood. In order to ensure a neighborhood is in agreement with a new streetlight, the requesting resident will be required to gather signatures from a majority of residents on a street and submit the signatures to Colorado Springs Utilities. The petition form can be found below. In instances where crime occurs, Colorado Springs Police Department may request lighting be added, and the streetlights team may install a streetlight without neighborhood approval.
If you need assistance with any of these streetlight-related issues, please send your request to askus@csu.org or report it using the GoCOS! website or smartphone app for Apple or Android. Please include streetlight pole numbers, nearest street address, or cross streets in your request.
How are we improving the streetlight system?
Converting from HPS to LED
As HPS streetlights fail, they are replaced with LED fixtures. LEDs produce less light pollution, improve visibility, use less energy, and have longer lifespans. Approximately 20% of the City’s streetlights have been converted to LEDs and we are looking for ways to expedite conversion.
Color Temperature
The streetlights team uses 3000K color temperature for streetlights. This color temperature is the closest to the amber color temperature of existing HPS streetlights that we can currently purchase. The color temperature of HPS fixtures is 2200K.
Prioritizing Public Safety
Because of our limited budget for streetlights, lighting priorities are determined primarily by traffic and public safety concerns. Areas with reported crime and streets with heavy traffic loads and frequent pedestrian use at night are given first priority
Smart CitySmart Cities utilize technology and the Internet of Things to address challenges facing our community and improve the quality of life for our citizens, particularly in the areas of connectivity, energy, and resilience. Colorado Springs identified four organizational pillars to implement a vision for Smart Cities: Energy and utilities, transportation and mobility, City services, and buildings and sustainability. Attachments
The Office of Innovation is partnering with Springs Utilities to pilot various smart city technology on streetlights. Learn more about our streetlight controllers and weather sensors pilot projects. A smart parking project was completed using sensors attached to streetlights. Air quality sensors will be deployed on streetlights in 2022.
More information about streetlights:
View an interactive map of the City’s streetlights.
After clicking the link above, review and click ‘Agree’ on the Disclaimer popup. Near the top left corner, click ‘View Map Layers’, and then in the top left corner in the ‘All Available Layers’ drop down menu, choose the ‘Streetlights’ layer. Zoom in to view existing streetlights.