Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities is extending its lighting curfew program to stretches of the Glenn Highway between Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley, a distance of 34 miles.
A lighting curfew turns off street lighting between interchanges during late night and early morning hours.
The Glenn Highway lighting curfew will be between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.
Electricity is a significant part of DOT’s Central Region operating budget, the department noted, costing $2.2 million each year for approximately 8,500 fixtures.
Late night and early morning hours (midnight to 6 a.m.) account for 50 percent of the department’s electrical budget for lighting, when less than 5 percent of the traffic is on the road.
The department estimates a savings of approximately $190,000 in electrical costs once the lighting curfew is fully implemented. The savings will be used to prioritize winter maintenance tasks, such as snow and ice removal.
DOT has implemented lighting curfews along three sections of highway, including:
- Minnesota Drive: International to Old Seward, 5.0 miles (started in July of 2017)
- Sterling Highway MP 80-83, 4.0 miles (started March, 2019)
- C Street-Tudor to O’Malley, 3.8 miles (started July, 2019)
The department plans to expand the lighting curfew to in the Valley, on Trunk Road from Parks Highway to Seldon Road, a distance of 3.5 miles.
The department is converting eligible roadways to LED lighting with federal funds as repair cycles occur. Recent LED Lighting Retrofit Projects have generated $70,000 in annual savings. Combined LED retrofits and curfews have the potential to reduce state costs by up to 75 percent of the existing system costs.
