Highways England really have not got the slightest clue.Highways England’s bright idea for motorway lighting in Yorkshire
Published:24 August 2017
Highways England has proved it’s switched on to innovative lighting ideas after carrying out a series of improvements which could save more than 700 tonnes of carbon a year – enough to power 20,000 homes.
In a national first, contractors working for Highways England worked with specialists to adapt technology used for architectural ornamental lighting, such as monuments and halls, for use on motorways and major A roads.
The improvement work took place on the M62 near Huddersfield and Halifax (junction 22 to 25), and the M621 near Leeds - replacing 1,618 street lights with modern efficient LED lighting units. The new lighting is 53% more efficient saving the equivalent energy of powering the homes of 20,000 people and 389,000 loads of washing. The project also included upgrading street lighting power supply equipment on both roads and the installation of a remote monitoring system which allows contractors to remotely control the lights. The newly-installed LED lights require no routine maintenance, which means less disruption for drivers.
Highways England service delivery team leader for Yorkshire and Humber, Mark Ramsden, said "This is a true example of taking innovation from another industry, modifying it for the highways sector, and improving value by locking in safety, customer, cost efficiencies and environment benefits. We have replaced the conventional lighting with the newly developed lighting to provide bright, effective illumination to highways and road signs – reducing maintenance and road closures for drivers."
Back in Highways Agency years, the first trunk road installation of LED street lighting was on the A5 in Tamworth back in 2010. The first installation of LED street lighting on a motorway was at M6 Junction 22 on the slip roads back in 2011. I believe the first installation of LED street lighting on a motorway mainline carriageway was on the M3 near Southampton back in 2013. LED lighting has appeared on numerous motorways and A-roads on the Highways England network. I've seen it on the likes of the M1 near Northampton, M6 through Birmingham, A282 Dartford Crossing and A120 near the A12, and I've heard it exists in other places like the M5 and M53. Also, down my way the Area 3 part of Highways England has, I would estimate, rolled out LED lighting to 95% of the roads it maintains, which for motorways alone includes M3 J13-14, M4 J5-8/9, M4 J10-12, M27 J3, M27 J4, M27 J7-8 and M27 J12.
The point is, Highways England are claiming a national first for something that actually happened 7 years earlier, and seem to be oblivious to the fact that there is already a significant amount of LED in some areas.
The other load of bull in the press release is the service delivery team leader claiming that Highways England have driven the innovation and somehow had involvement in developing the LED street lighting, when in fact it has been driven by the manufacturers and there are many dozens of local authorities plus other trunk road authorities in the UK that are also successfully using LED, and some who have been using it for what is now approaching a decade. Evidently this manager is trying to big himself up on false pretences.
