NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A project has gotten underway to replace every light bulb on Nashville's Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge. It was set to transition the lights to LED technology.
This was the first change in the lighting on the bridge since it opened in May of 2004.
"The current bridge was lit with incandescent lighting, which have a life of two, to three years, and then you have to re-lamp it," explained Mark Macy, director of engineering for Metro Public Works.
Macy said it has been costly for crews to go out to the bridge on a regular basis to replace the current type of bulbs.
"With LED technology we can skip that for the next six, to eight years, and the lights will be just fine," Macy said.
The new LED lights would allow the city to program the lights that illuminate the bridge's arch, beams, and cables. There were 256 combinations available.
"You could do Breast Cancer Awareness in the hot pink, you could do July 4th in red, white, and blue," Macy said. "And that just comes with the package now."
The replacement project came with a $2.3 million price tag. Macy defended the project and said the new LED lights would use much less energy.
"So right off the bat, you're saving 40% on the energy bill every minute that they're on," according to Macy.
Even with the multi-million dollar price tag, Macy said this will be money well spent in the long-run.
"We expect that these lights will pay for themselves in the period of when we have to come back and replace them. So in eight to ten years, all of this will be paid for in energy reductions, and reduced maintenance costs," said Macy.
Nashville has already transitioned two streets to LED lighting. Korean Veterans Boulevard has LED lights, and the city has been in the process of installing them on Division Street.
"Most of the major cities have already done this, and we've waited a little longer to let the costs go down," Macy said.
Metro Public Works has been working with Nashville Electric Service to come up with a plan to eventually transition all of Nashville's 50,000 street light to LED technology.
The new lighting on Korean Veterans Bridge was scheduled to be completed by the end of July.
