SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Tijuana officials say roughly half of all streetlights in the city are outdated and in need of modernization
Jaime Brambila Álvarez, head of Tijuana’s Public Services, says about 38,000 streetlights need replacement, and that will cost the city more than $11 million.
“We have renovated more than 27,000 of the lights,” he said, “Sometimes, it only requires changing the ballast or the bulbs. Our goal is to change out 50 streetlights every day.”
Currently, he said. 20 percent of the street-lighting system in Tijuana doesn’t work at all.
“One of the projects for 2024 is to get rid of the obsoleted network, putting in new LED technology, but it’s going to cost 200 million pesos,” said Brambila Álvarez. “LED technology has everything integrated, and it rarely goes down.”
When asked why there are so many lights that don’t work throughout the city, he said there are many short circuits and auto accidents that put many of the lights or connectors out of order.
“The poles used to be made out of concrete, but they were less forgiving on impact resulting in many deaths. We’ve switched to aluminum poles that are more flexible, but upon impact they give way,” he said. “We have 12 installation projects planned for the city, as we modernize the city, we are installing the new lights or upgrading others.”
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