Street Lights & Roads Play Big Role in Bristol Twp.’s Infrastructure Reinvigoration

The work on reinvigorating the infrastructure of Bristol Township continues.

Between new street lights and repaved roads, township officials are investing in the aging community.

At last month’s council meeting, Township Manager Bill McCauley said the new LED lights being installed was on track to be completed by the fall.

According to township officials, all of the 4,259 outdated, inefficient and expensive mercury vapor and high pressure sodium lights will be replaced with modern LED “green” technology.

Officials said that due to the tax-exempt lease purchasing program from Philips as well as $1,274,827 in grant funding received from the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority, the township was able to keep the total cost of the project to approximately $2.3 million, which was $2 million dollars less than originally planned.

Armour Electric of Langhorne is doing the retrofitting and has completed about 68 percent of project, officials told LevittownNow.com.

“Armour Electric’s perseverance during the snowy conditions and cold temperatures this winter has been particularly impressive,” said McCauley.

“In October 2013, the Bristol Township Council unanimously supported the new project by approving a lease purchase program through Philips Lighting to retrofit all of the Township’s streetlights to the new modern LED Technology and purchase the state of the art “Starsense” control system,” a press release from the township read.

According to Vaughn Van Gilson of Penn Lighting, who is managing the project, the new “smart” streetlights will offer key features such as remote asset management, remote lighting controls, data collection, and error and maintenance reporting, which will not only help to save energy by reducing lights that are burning during daylight hours, but will also improve public safety by decreasing the rate of failed or burned-out streetlights.

“The ‘Starsense’ controls will now notify the township when a street lights malfunctions as opposed to having to send out a man with a bucket truck to diagnose the problem,” noted Van Gilson.

The township says it will save over $1 million over a five year period it. In total, the township has over $90 million in unfunded liabilities.

Throughout the winter, one of most often complained about roads, Mill Creek Parkway, is scheduled to be repaved.

“Residents interested in replacing a curb, driveway apron or sidewalk  must do so before the road is paved, the municipality advises and a permit must be obtained from the Department of License and Inspection Once paving is completed, Bristol  Township will not allow the road to be excavated for any reason for five (5) years, except in emergency situations,” the township noted in a document.

Bristol Township borrowed $4 million dollars for the 2014 paving project, which includes 24 miles of planned work that was approved by council in September.

Approximately the same amount was borrowed for the 2013 project. The project included work done in the Croydon and the Levittown sections of the township.

Officials have said some roads haven’t been repaved since Levittown was built in some 60 years ago.

“The objective of next year’s milling and paving program would be to complete another 24 miles of the remaining 44 miles in need of improvement, This would leave you with 20 miles to be resurfaced over the next two years, subject to finances and interest rates,” McCauley said at the time.

Paving for 2014 is set to begin on June 2.

Township officials have stressed that a key to attracting businesses to the area is working on its infrastructure.