February 25, 2022

Activists move Kansas City to Adopt Dimmable 3000K Streetlights

Environmental and health concerns impact project for 84,000 streetlights

KANSAS CITY, MO – The City of Kansas City, Missouri owns and operates nearly 100,000 streetlights. The City will soon convert tens of thousands of streetlights from high-pressure sodium to energy-efficient LEDs.

Local electrical contractor, Black and McDonald, has been hired to replace 84,000 high-pressure sodium sources with an LED source starting in May, with an estimated 3-year project timeline. Work will proceed concurrently across the City’s six districts. The cost of this conversion is approximately $21 million, but the City projects that energy and maintenance savings will cause the lights to pay for themselves in 7-8 years.

With an installed cost of $250 per fixture and the City's announcement that cites installing "LED bulbs," this appears to be lamp/driver retrofit and not a fixture replacement.

The current project has received lots of pushback from locals, environmental activists and health advocates. Their efforts have successfully reshaped the project from what was once a non-dimmed 4000K solution to a dimmable 3000K solution.

Here are some of the positions which apparently impacted the Kansas City Council's recent passing of the ordinance for the contract to replace 84,000 streetlights:

Dr. Vayujeet Gokhale, associate professor of physics at Missouri’s Truman State University and board member of Missouri’s chapter of the International Dark Sky Association, expressed concern with how the bright lights affect all living creatures and their natural rhythms.
Mary Nemecek, conservation chair for the Burroughs Audubon Society of Greater Kansas City, was able to get attention to some of her environmental concerns. She cites a 2019 study from Cornell University that ranked Kansas City seventh in spring and eighth in fall as most dangerous for migrating birds.
Nemecek also asserted that bird migration issues will only get worse if the city increases its existing skyglow with 4000K lights.
Multiple activists cited the 2016 report from the American Medical Association – which caused locals to question if LEDs are safe for humans, arguing LED streetlights are too bright, “operating at a wavelength that most adversely suppresses melatonin.”

Some well-informed lighting people may disagree with how some of the above arguments are formed but, in the end, the City Council has voted and locals will soon experience the gradual transition from high-pressure sodium sources to 3000K LED streetlights throughout Kansas City, Missouri.