Duggan: Detroit now has 4,600 LED streetlights, on track to 50,000

Bridget Vis / Crain's Detroit Business

Odis Jones, the CEO of the Detroit Public Lighting Authority, announces the PLA has completed installation of 4,600 LED streetlights ahead of the May 1 deadline. On hand to congratulate the PLA were Police Chief James Craig and Mayor Mike Duggan, as well as Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones.

Detroits Public Lighting Authority has completed the installation nearly 5,000 LED lights with overhead wiring in two pilot area neighborhoods and is expanding into a handful of new Detroit ZIP codes.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and lighting authority CEO Odis Jones announced the progress today and said the authority is on pace to reach its goal of having all the neighborhoods in Detroit lit by 2015.

Odis and his team have done a great job, Duggan said. They are learning as they go and are picking up the pace.

Bridget Vis . Crain's Detroit Business

Utility worker Danny West Jr. shows an example of the LED lights that have been installed in two pilot neighborhoods.

Duggan said the authority has brought organization to the street lighting project, following standards that match those in other major cities. The more efficient LED lights are being installed in the neighborhoods at every corner and in the middle of the block.

While the neighborhoods are expected to be lit by the end of next year, Duggan said it will take longer to fix the lights along major thoroughfares and collector streets, which use underground wiring. Those lights are expected to be installed by the end of 2016. Underground wiring is expected to be completed in the two pilot areas by end of July.

I feel very good about where we are right now, the mayor said.

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Duggan: Detroit now has 4,600 LED streetlights, on track to 50,000