Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the Chicago Smart Lighting Project has taken a major step forward following action by the Chicago Infrastructure Trust’s (CIT) Board of Directors. In a unanimous vote the Board recommended a vendor to be considered by the City for a contract to implement the historic initiative to replace approximately 270,000 outdated public lights with reliable and high-quality streetlights. The Smart Lighting Project procurement is being led by the CIT, in close coordination with CDOT and other City departments and agencies. Following today’s recommendation, the City will make the final vendor selection in the coming months, which will be recommended to the City Council for final approval. Tuesday’s vote follows a recently-completed public demonstration that brought test lights to seven neighborhoods across Chicago. The survey found:

• 64 percent of the respondents agreed that the LED lighting improved night time visibility;
• 57 percent agreed that the LED lighting made it easier to distinguish colors at night; and
• 88 percent of respondents felt the LED light levels were sufficient or more than enough.

The final lights used in the initiative will feature a zero-uplight design to ensure the light is focused downward toward the street and sidewalk where it is needed, with limited light trespass into resident’s homes. In addition, all LED luminaires will be limited to a maximum correlated color temperature (CCT) of 3000K or less, and most will contain dimmable power sources that provide the ability to remotely adjust light levels where needed.