Amey has begun work installing 56,000 new LED Luminaires to street lights in a three-year contract for Manchester City Council.

The project will see existing traditional discharge lamps replaced with the latest high technology LED lights which will deliver significant energy and carbon emission reductions whilst providing more robust in-light service and improved colour recognition qualities with significantly reduced maintenance activities and running costs. The LED lighting solutions will be over 60 per cent more energy-efficient.

The LED Project will contribute to achieving the City Council’s legal Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) targets. Following completion of the LED rollout, over 7,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year will be cut, and the council will benefit from energy running cost savings of over £2million a year.

The improved colour quality of the LED lights will offer greater comfort to pedestrians and road users of Manchester: improved visibility, colour recognition and generally promote safer streets and the wellbeing of Manchester communities.

The LED lighting will be complimented by a state-of-the-art dynamic remote monitoring and control system with the ability for the city to better manage and control its infrastructure, allowing the council to take up smart city opportunities in the future.

The lighting control system will provide flexibility for adaptive lighting techniques to optimise energy usage and to respond to specific circumstances and situations where varying light levels can assist public safety and disbursement and aid flow traffic changes in the event of emergencies; for example, raising light levels to help disperse large crowds after a major event or reduce levels to mitigate exposure to energy cost pressures in the event of any global or local crisis.

The combination of the high technology LED lighting with the management control and monitoring system will promote further future city infrastructure management enhancements in a wide range of applications and techniques to respond to increasing citizen demands. This could include real time on-street messaging linked to the streetlight control system and the ability to convey public messages and advise related to traffic congestion and issues in parts of the city and to communicate major events. Sensors on lampposts can be used to monitor conditions including air quality and pollution or to provide traffic flow and other data.

Amey’s Business Director Barry Hale said: “We are excited to be installing these LED lights across the City of Manchester. We are leaders in this field, having installed over 200,000 LED lights across the UK and the first company to install them in Birmingham and Sheffield and also the neighbouring Trafford Borough. This technology will enable the council to use the streetlight network not just for lighting the city but also for a number of potential uses in the future. This is exciting technology and we are proud to be rolling it out in the heart of Manchester.”

Executive Member for the Environment, Councillor Angeliki Stogia, said: “This change to new LED lighting will benefit Manchester by helping us to save money and provide a better quality of service for residents, while also significantly reducing the city’s carbon footprint.”