RIDOT Offers To Take Over Town/City Streetlights On State Roads

PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Department of Transportation has sent letters to all 39 cities and towns offering to assume responsibility for local streetlights that were installed on state roads.

The offer corrects a “decades-old legacy issue of uncertainty" about which public entity is responsible for such lights, RIDOT said in a news release.

RIDOT is now converting its own lights from high pressure sodium to LED, a project expected to save $865,000 annually. RIDOT will then turn to the 14,000 lights that municipalities have on state roads. The agency said it can use the cost savings from its own LED conversion to acquire the 14,000 lights and maintain them, provided that municipalities first convert them to LED. The anticipated cost to maintain those lights would be approximately $845,000 annually.

Municipalities must meet certain conditions for RIDOT to assume responsibility for their lights:

1. The municipality must have purchased the streetlights from Narragansett Electric (National Grid).

2. The lights must have been converted to LED at the cost of the municipality.

3. Ownership must be converted to RIDOT free of cost.

4. Any existing attachment agreements must be assigned to RIDOT.

5. If the municipality has any third-party agreements for maintenance and upkeep, RIDOT will not assume those.

6. Lights must be free of any and all encumbrances.

7. RIDOT will not assume responsibility for floodlights serving property not owned by RIDOT.

8. All streetlights must be inspected to ensure they are in good working order.

9. Each city or town council must approve the transfer.

Over the decades, municipalities have installed streetlights on state roads — sometimes with the consent of RIDOT, and sometimes on their own. RIDOT said this had resulted in a hodgepodge of ownership and maintenance issues.

"What we had was a longstanding issue with the wrong people paying the wrong bills for the wrong lights. Now we will be able to straighten it out," said RIDOT Director Peter Alviti.

Governor Dan McKee said that it’s a “smart move for public safety” and that LED streetlights are a cost-efficient way to transition to a low-carbon economy. He said the move will let towns and cities reallocate the money they now spend on streetlight maintenance.