The Department of Public Works maintains over 1,500 street lights from our downtown district to our major thoroughfares. You can drive through many municipalities in the evening hours and you would be hard pressed to find a better lit community.

The maintenance program for our roadway lighting infrastructure is both proactive and progressive. Our police officers scan the street lights on the night shift and provide a monthly outage report to our Public Lighting division. Occasionally the residents will also report street light outages to our DPW office. This community wide teamwork allows our Public Lighting division to respond quickly to damaged or defective roadway lighting. It would be a rarity to find one or two lights out at any given time throughout the city. This can be attributed to careful planning and a community of employees and residents dedicated to the safety of our roadways.

The maintenance and repair of our street lighting infrastructure can be a daunting task. This responsibility falls on the shoulders of our Master electrician and a fourth year electrical apprentice. Whether it be a failed light fixture, faulty wiring or complete destruction of a light pole due to vehicle accident, our electricians are called upon day or night to quickly resolve the issue.

Auburn Hills works hard to stay on the cutting edge of technology when it comes to our roadway lighting. The vast majority of our roadway lighting has been converted to LED technology. This proactive lighting program has resulted in dramatic energy cost savings that demonstrates the dedication to fiscal responsibility as one of our core values. As our lighting infrastructure ages, the city continues to proactively seek innovative technology solutions for our present and future roadway lighting needs.

As you travel our roadways at night, look up and you will see that there is a community of dedicated people lighting the way for our future!

Terry Barnett
Technician II, Municipal Properties