For those walking around the neighborhood bounded by 53rd Avenue to the north, Florin Road to the south, Stockton Boulevard to the west, and Briggs Drive to the east, they’ll find nighttime strolls a little brighter.
An area that was dark for decades is now the home for 47 new LED street lights. The lights are now part of the neighborhood as part of a Community Development Block Grant provided by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.
At the Apr. 23 Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board accepted the final finished product designed to make the area safer for pedestrians. Along with the high-efficiency street lights, the neighborhood also received upgraded curbs, gutters and sidewalks to accommodate the new street light foundations.
The $649,000 project is part of the ongoing effort to improve the mobility and safety for residents in the unincorporated areas of
Sacramento County.
Two additional street light projects, both planned for District 2 in South Sacramento, were approved by the Board on Apr. 23 as well.
District 2 Supervisor Patrick Kennedy believes projects like these will not only help boost safety but improve neighborhood look and feel.
“These projects have been a long time in the making,” said Kennedy. “The neighborhoods have been calling for streetlights for decades. Older neighborhoods need the safety and security of lighting and all told, these projects will provide 130 LED lights for neighborhoods that have never had them.”
Sacramento County’s Department of Transportation (SacDOT) maintains nearly 22,900 street and safety lights around the County. Maintenance of the older lights is an expensive procedure which has led SacDOT in recent years to look for energy-efficient ways to cut costs and ensure safer viewing at night.
So far more than 20,000 streetlights around unincorporated Sacramento County have been retrofitted, and more than 11,000 of those were energy-hogging lights made of high-pressure sodium and mercury vapor.
