To modernize the public lighting system, The City of Chicago has launched a program to replace traditional lamps with modern ones connected to an automated network.

Through the American streets, Tens of millions of lampposts follow. An invention that has witnessed many stages of development over the centuries since the first Roman lamps, It has even become a source of what is known as light pollution.

Under this definition, Unregulated use cases of artificial outdoor light sources include, Which leads to the phenomenon of the glow of the sky over cities, Light pollution today is expanding, Disturbs the biological clock that guides the day, nighttime and physiological processes of most organisms, The glow of artificial lighting in cities can make it difficult to study astronomy and stars.

In the city of Chicago, The streets are illuminated by a yellow light from nearly 300,000 old-fashioned incandescent lamps. These high-pressure sodium lamps have a short lifespan and high energy consumption, It constitutes 85% of the lighting system.

Therefore, The city's Ministry of Transportation, in cooperation with the Assets, Information and Services Department, has launched its project, which it called the "Chicago Smart Lighting Program". She collaborated with public street lighting officials in various U.S. municipalities and subcontractors from leading local energy companies.

At a cost of $160 million, The project seeks to modernize street lamps and replace them with light-emitting diodes, Which are known as "LED" lamps, It has twice the durability and requires half the amount of energy compared to its predecessor.

City authorities had a timid experience with these lamps in 2012. It then conducted a series of experiments in late 2016. During which I showed the performance of these lamps to the residents and collected their impressions of them online, Then I totally depended on it, The team replaced nearly 4,000 lighting units before the start of the program. Today, City authorities are seeking to complete their massive program to modernize light bulbs after trials showed valuable positive results related to reducing energy consumption.

Before installing the lamps, The technicians provided each with a wireless node, Together, these nodes form a network to monitor any malfunction or interruption in lighting. Then The software automatically issues a digital repair ticket for the malfunctioning lamp and assigns one of the available crews to service or replace it.

The government focused on securing job opportunities for the city's residents and involving the community in all its spectrum, A set of criteria for the implementation of the programme has been established, Including that the participation rate of the minority business enterprise should not be less than 26%, compared to 6% for the Women's Business Enterprise, Chicago authorities also required locals to make up half of the project's crews. And that 10% of the workers are from socially and economically disadvantaged areas. To ensure that this condition is met, 60% of the lamps of the first year of the project were manufactured and modified within a factory located in one of those areas, The city also prioritized southern and western neighborhoods with low safety rates. Its streets were the first places to be illuminated by modern lamps.

The population has joined the authorities in their efforts, So they collected more than half of the lamps, and will participate in its installation, Graduates of vocational programs offered by the Chicago Public School or University made up more than half of the staff conducting existing infrastructure assessments along with former prisoners.

For superior optical performance, The new technology takes advantage of the human eye's ability to better distinguish colors at night. It adopts a degree of white light that makes the contrast between the object and its surroundings more clear, So that pedestrians, drivers or riders can identify vehicles or debris quickly and accurately.

But the use of these modern lamps has not gone without public health concerns, They emit whiter light than traditional yellow bulbs, To obtain this full-spectrum light requires the use of a blue segment with a wavelength shorter than the visible light spectrum.

To avoid safety challenges, City authorities conducted a thorough search, She sought the advice of competent bodies such as the Department of Energy, the American Medical Association and the Society of Lighting Engineers. To comply with community and health standards, The city has committed to having its lamps of a "moderate white" color, So that its color temperature does not exceed 3 thousand Kelvin, The design of the lamp should focus the light downwards so as to illuminate the streets and sidewalks, It does not reach the houses or the heavenly space.

The project, which exceeded the goals set by the organizers for community participation and manpower, was able to improve the quality of night vision and the performance of surveillance cameras. and to enhance public safety, reduce light pollution, and the provision of employment opportunities for the most vulnerable social groups, 34% more than planned, and the state-of-the-art management system and intelligent reporting of maintenance needs have helped improve the lighting service.

By measuring the consumption of diodes, The project will provide 17.8 million kilowatt-hours per year, enough to feed nearly 2,000 homes. In 2021 alone, This step reduced previous power consumption by half, This includes financial and environmental bills, Chicago recovered $34 million from the local electric utility company. and reduced its carbon footprint, This serves the goal of achieving full reliance on clean energy.

Over the next ten years, City authorities estimate that the project will save taxpayers up to $100 million in operational cost. It will reduce about one and a half million metric tons of carbon dioxide, The equivalent of the consumption of 160,000 homes.

It can be said that the project offers one of the largest and most reliable smart technology infrastructure systems, It establishes a model that can be replicated elsewhere.

References:

• https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cdot/provdrs/future_projects_andconcepts/news/2022/february/mayor-lightfoot-announces-cdot-has-completed-chicago-smart-light.html#:~:text=Lightfoot%20announced%20the%20City%20of,electricity%20costs%20over%20the%20next
• https://chicagosmartlighting-chicago.opendata.arcgis.com/
• https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/light-pollution/#:~:text=Light%20pollution%2C%20or%20artificial%20light,stars%20in%20the%20night%20sky