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Updated 7/09 by John Deskins City of Kennewick – Municipal Services Department Street Light Priority Rating Policy Purpose: The primary purpose of street lighting is to provide adequate nighttime light for the prevention of vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian collisions. Street lighting increases driving safety during nighttime hours by illuminating the roadway surface, roadside hazards, pedestrians, bicyclists and other vehicles. Secondarily, street lighting results in some spill over onto adjacent properties, which may serve as a deterrent to crime against persons, and property**. Policy: Limited budgets create the need to establish a prioritization system for the installation of new street lighting within unlit and under-lighted areas in the city and the maintenance of existing street lighting facilities. The city program does not fund installations of new streetlights on local streets. Residents/owner of properties along local streets may install their own on-site security lighting, pay the full installation cost of a streetlight, or form a local improvement district (LID) to have street lighting installed. New installation and maintenance of existing facilities will be assigned points based upon the criteria presented below. Points are additive. Problem Type: New Light Request 0 points Maintenance problem affecting 1 light 2 points Maintenance problem affecting 2 to 5 lights 5 points Maintenance problem affecting 6 to 9 lights 8 points Maintenance problem affecting 10+ lights 10 points Location Point Assignment: (Based on Functional Classification and Area Type) Commercial Area Residential or Industrial Area Roadway Classification PA MA C L NI PA MA C L NI Principal Arterial 10 8 6 5 4 8 7 5 4 3 Minor Arterial 6 5 4 3 5 4 3 2 Collector 4 3 2 3 2 1 Local 0 0 0 0 PA - principal arterial; MA - minor arterial; C – collector (includes neighborhood collectors); L – local, NI – Non-intersection Modifiers: (All apply additive to Problem Type and Location Point Assignment) High nighttime traffic crash location correctable with lighting 10 points Marked, uncontrolled (no stop sign or signal) pedestrian or school crosswalk 10 points Marked, controlled pedestrian or school crosswalk 6 points Arterial/Collector curve > 10 mph under posted speed limit 6 points Traffic Volume Modifiers: Average Daily Traffic (ADT) greater than 20,000 vehicles per day 6 points ADT between 12,500 to 19,999 vehicles per day 4 points ADT between 5,000 to 12,499 vehicles per day 2 points Intersections and street segments that are part of a capital improvement project, L.I.D., etc. that will be provided with street lighting in a funded project are exempt from prioritization. Due to budget constraints, not all high priority issues can be completed in one budget cycle. Therefore, lower priority issues may be combined with issues of higher priority work to make best use of the assigned funds. If two or more locations have equal points then the Traffic Engineer shall utilize discretion and engineering judgment taking into account citizen requests and all other available information. Other items such as overlay moratorium may possibly affect the scheduling of streetlight work. **Homeowners occasionally request that shields be installed to prevent light from spilling over into their yard. Though these requests were sometimes accommodated in the past, the Benton PUD and the City no longer install shields due to safety and maintenance concerns. Shields can be hazardous to employees working on the luminaire and also fall off or break luminaire arms from wind loading that exceeds design criteria. Excessive vibration from the wind can also damage the equipment or compromise the dust seals on the luminaire. Remaining shields found in the system during the performance of maintenance will be removed by Benton PUD or City of Kennewick. Peter Beaudry Municipal Services Executive Director Date