News Track: State replaces hundreds of faulty streetlights

DES MOINES — Those purple streetlights that suddenly popped up all over Eastern Iowa last year: They should be gone now, for the most part, a state transportation official says.

Background

Many transportation departments, including in Iowa, switched to LED streetlights in 2017 because they are more affordable, last longer and are more environmentally friendly.

But the issue of the off-color lights arose last year when some lights from Acuity American Electric Lighting, installed by the state in 2018, had faulty interior coating. When the inside coating deteriorated, the lights shone with a purple-blue hue.

Several could be seen last year along the S-curve of downtown Cedar Rapids’ Interstate 380. The faulty lights appeared to be constrained in the state to Eastern and Southeastern Iowa. But Kentucky, Illinois, Kansas and Wisconsin also reported thousands of blue-purple streetlights.

Neil Egan, Acuity American Electric Lighting director of communications, told The Gazette last year that the phenomenon is called a spectral shift caused by phosphor displacement after years of installation.

“The light output is in no way harmful or unsafe,” Egan said. “As always, we stand behind the quality of our products, and we have been proactively working with customers who have experienced the issue to address any concerns.”

What’s happened since

John Hart, director of the maintenance bureau at the Iowa Department of Transportation, said last week that the state has replaced the vast majority of the LED streetlights that had turned purple.

Initially, Hart believed the state transportation department would have to replace more than 100 streetlights. But it turned out to be “several hundred,” mostly in Eastern and Southeastern Iowa, Hart said.

“We ended up replacing quite a few of our lights that were installed in that time range that did go bad and ultimately went to a purple color,” he said.

Because the issue was a result of the lights’ manufacturing and they were still under warranty, the vendor provided replacement lights at no cost to the state, Hart said. However, the state incurred costs for the labor to replace the bulbs.

Hart said the bulk of the faulty lights was in Eastern Iowa metro areas like Dubuque, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, and in Southeast Iowa.

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Hart said the state transportation department is “pretty much done” replacing faulty lights on the state road systems, including interstate and state highways.

He noted that drivers may still see the occasional faulty, purple streetlights, which may be on local road systems that have not yet been addressed by local governments.

“It’s calmed down for us. We’re kind of hoping it has run its course,” Hart said. “The goal of buying LED lights was to have them last a long time so we don’t have to be up there replacing them. So this kind of was not what we wanted to happen. But we had to deal with it. We can’t let it go. We wanted to fix it and get it right.”

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com