DEARBORN HEIGHTS — City officials have negotiated new street light replacement and maintenance arrangements with DTE in a three-phase plan.

The program will replace a majority of the city’s lights while saving nearly $280,000.

The first phase of the plan calls for the replacement of nearly all of the outdated mercury-vapor and incandescent fixtures throughout the city with bright, more efficient LED bulbs.

This will replace 2,817 of the city’s 3,653 light fixtures while the city will keep its already existing 463 LED lights from earlier upgrades. 

Additional improvements scheduled for later this year include a renewed initiative for lamp post inspections and replacement where required. Posts that need aesthetic touch-ups will also receive fresh paint.

The second phase will include the addition of six new LED fixtures on streets surrounding the Daly Park grounds.

The third and final phase of the project, which is still under evaluation, will see the upgrade of lights along Warren Ave.

Due to the unique style of lights installed throughout that area and their underground wiring, alternative replacement equipment and methods are being sought before plans can be finalized and work can begin on the phase.

As part of the agreement, DTE Energy will assume all maintenance work on the city’s lights.

The city’s street lights currently have a combination of many different light fixtures, including mercury vapor, metal halide and high pressure sodium, and all of them vary in intensity from 65W to as high as 250W or 400W, causing large variations in lighting levels throughout the city. The new fixtures will have a uniformly bright output level across the city.

“I am thrilled we are able to bring this project to fruition,” Mayor Bill Bazzi said. “This is a win-win for both our residents and our businesses. Not only will we experience newer and brighter lights to help enhance the safety of our neighborhoods, we will also see an annual savings of well over a quarter million dollars from what we have been spending. I am grateful to our DTE colleagues, as well as those city officials who played such an instrumental part in negotiating this agreement.”

Bazzi also said it’s important for residents to continue to play an active role in helping report outages.

“Every street light in the city has a small tag near the base of the pole with an identification number stamped on it,” he said. “When a resident sees a street light that is not working, we encourage them to simply record the pole’s tag number and report it to the DTE ‘Street Light Problem’ website at https://outage.dteenergy.com/outdoor-lights. That way, instead of contacting the city staff, who in turn would need to re-report the outage to DTE, their report will go directly to the appropriate DTE repair staff for action. This saves both time and effort for everyone involved.”