PORT ANGELES — New, energy-saving light will be shed on downtown Port Angeles as part of $2.9 million of ongoing streetlight and traffic signal improvements — including work likely to slow traffic through the busiest sections of the city.
On Monday, work began on Lincoln Street on the projects by the state Department of Transportation and city of Port Angeles.
Crews began erecting new streetlight poles from Second Street to Lauridsen Boulevard in an ongoing citywide project that will end this summer, city Electrical Engineering Manager Terry Dahlquist said.
Lincoln — U.S. Highway 101 — will remain open during the work, but traffic lane revisions will be established for about three weeks.
Eighty-five decrepit, 1950s-era wooden streetlight poles are being replaced with new wooden or fiberglass poles as part of a $900,000 project, Dahlquist said.
“These are poles that have reached the end of life,” he said.
Michael’s Power of Tumwater is doing the work, Dahlquist said.
The city also is replacing 850 yellowish-light, high-pressure sodium streetlights throughout the city with whiter-casting bulbs that more closely mimic daylight, Dahlquist said.
They also use 30 percent less energy and last three times longer than the old bulbs, a result that nets the city a rebate from the Bonneville Power Administration, he said.
Almost half of the city’s roughly 2,000 streetlights will be replaced by the time the $1.2 million project is completed in May, he said.
“If you get in an accident situation where the police and fire departments are out there, it’s easier for them to describe color and recognize whether something is blood or grease,” he said.
“We’ve had positive comments from people, particularly in residential areas where we’ve done some of the work, that it provides more illumination.”
The state Department of Transportation also was replacing traffic-signal poles and lights at First and Lincoln streets Monday as part of an $800,000 project awarded to Olympic Electric of Port Angeles.
Work Monday blocked a right-turn pocket on Lincoln for eastbound traffic heading for Sequim on First Street, Transportation Project Engineer Jerry Moore said.
Traffic signal poles and fixtures also will be replaced on the Tumwater truck route, Lincoln and Front streets and Front and Ennis streets.
“Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we’ll be done — three weeks tops,” Moore said.
The street signals fluorescent, LED lights are operated by non-recording, stationary cameras that can time changes from red to green according to the number of cars waiting for the signal to move ahead, he said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
