The Island’s roads are to get brighter over the next two years.

Craig Cannonier, Minister of Public Works, has announced that enhanced LED lighting is being rolled out in partnership with Belco across the Island.

Placement of the more efficient, brighter and full colour lights has begun in Dockyard and is moving east, following on from a pilot project that begun with lights at Trimingham Road in 2014.

Eighty new lights have been put in place so far. It will take two years for two Belco crews to install the lights across Bermuda. The government has accepted Belco’s lease for a “a ten-year financing arrangement”, said Mr Cannonier, after which the lights and their monitoring equipment will go to the Government. By cutting the monthly bill for street lighting by about 57 per cent, it stands to save the Government $14 million over the course of 20 years, while cutting down on 988 tonnes per year of carbon emissions — the emissions equivalent of about 181 cars being taken off the road.

The system will do away with the present high-pressure sodium lamps, which emit a weaker and less focused orange glow, and also eliminate the need for the public to report outages.

According to Denton Williams, the chief operating officer for Belco, the system will have its own monitoring capabilities, plus built-in surge protection, and will not require the replacement of the entire light if just a component breaks.