LED Streetlights Mean Big Savings

EFFICIENT STREETLIGHT BULBS SAVE COUNTY $50K A YEAR: And that’s just at one interchange.

David Mitchell, director of Bernalillo County’s Operations and Maintenance Department, says the standard bulbs at Atrisco Vista and Central — at the top of 9-mile hill at the Interstate 40 off-ramps — have been swapped out for LEDs using bond money that was set to expire.

And while the energy savings — cutting the bill from $100,000 a year to around $50,000 — is a big reason for the trade, Mitchell also says the LEDs provide motorists with “truer color than the all-yellow appearance of things under the typical High Pressure Sodium Lighting.”

Robert Baker, who oversees the county’s signs and signals, says the project cost “$77,242.71 to replace 39 fixtures. These are the double fixtures because of the 40-foot mounting height, which (are) more than double the price of a standard fixture.”

The change-out took around seven days, Baker says. “The input wattage for the LED fixtures is about 241W as opposed to 400W, so they use about 40 percent less power. The benefits are they require less power, they’re brighter and they provide a more uniform light distribution on the pavement.”

And with the energy savings they will pay for themselves in their lifetime.

Baker says the LED bulbs “are warranted for 50,000 hours, which is about 11 years, but the life expectancy is 100,000-plus hours, which is over 20 years.”

WHY DOES RIO RANCHO MVD COST MORE? Jeff Chambliss emails that he “went to the Rio Rancho Motor Vehicle Division to renew my registration on a vehicle. I was told that there is a $10 city transaction fee. Rio Rancho’s website does mention this here, but $10 seems a little high. By comparison, the state administration fee was $2. How can this be? And here’s the kicker. The receipt doesn’t list this fee. Instead, the lady at the MVD hand wrote “$10 city fee” at the bottom of the receipt. Apparently this fee went into effect July 1st. But the way it’s being implemented seems underhanded, and $10 seems exorbitant.”

The office on Sabana Grande “is run by the city of Rio Rancho,” according to S.U. Mahesh, spokesman for MVD’s parent department Taxation and Revenue. In a previous column he has explained that “the city of Rio Rancho gets that money, and it sets those rates. There are 39 MVD offices that are operated by different cities across New Mexico, and these offices are permitted to charge transaction fees that they set and retain to offset their expenses in operating the office.”

Jeff says “that probably explains why there was no one there! I guess it’s cheaper” than other private MVD contractors.

ALAMEDA TRAIL WORK ALMOST DONE: Motorists have seen the orange barrels along the south side of Alameda between Fourth and Edith, and soon they will see major improvements to the multi-purpose trail.

Mitchell passed on these details of the $1.5 million project:

“The Alameda Trail project consists of a multipurpose trail along Alameda Boulevard from just east of Edith Boulevard to Fourth Street. The 12-foot wide asphalt trail will replace an existing trail that was 4 to 6 feet in width and of varying surfaces. The project will also include a bridge over Edith Boulevard.”

It is scheduled for completion this month.

Assistant editorial page editor D’Val Westphal tackles commuter issues for the Metro area on Mondays and West Siders and Rio Ranchoans on Thursdays. Reach her at 823-3858; road@abqjournal.com; P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, N.M. 87103; or go to ABQjournal.com/traffic to read previous columns and join in the conversation.