Light it Up!date: REVISED NOTICE Installation began Monday, September 24, for a new street lighting system to serve the predominantly student neighborhood east of The Ohio State University’s Columbus campus.
The city’s Division of Power and Water has contracted with Complete General Construction to install the new street lights. The project is expected to cost $762,000.
The construction will require temporary parking restrictions on affected streets. Parked vehicles not complying with the parking restrictions will be towed to a lot located at the northeast corner of High Street and East Eighth Avenue. The vehicles may be recovered without charge. For further information on vehicle recovery, owners may call (614) 448-3497.
The new lighting system will be installed in an area bounded by East 12th Avenue on the south, East Woodruff Avenue on the north, High Street on the west and Summit Street on the east.
The first phase of the work will replace street lights on East 12th, East 13th, East 14th and East 15th avenues. The whole project is scheduled to be completed by early April 2008.
Signs denoting the temporary parking restrictions will be posted on the affected streets. Flyers about the construction work are being distributed door-to-door in the area. In addition, the university is distributing information to students through electronic mail messages.
Ohio State’s Undergraduate Student Government called attention to the need for improved street lighting after its members conducted a survey in 2003-04 which found a number of burned out lights, as well as situations in which lights on a whole street were off.
The University Community Business Association (UCBA) and Campus Partners joined with USG to meet with officials from the city’s Division of Power and Water about the survey. As a result, burned out bulbs were replaced and overgrown foliage was trimmed. The city officials acknowledged, however, that the street lighting system was antiquated with periodic circuit breaks that would black out a whole street.
In the spring of 2006, USG submitted an application to the city for an allocation of money from the city’s Urban Infrastructure Recovery Fund to replace the street lighting system. That application also had the support of the university, University Area Commission, UCBA and Campus Partners.
In visiting the University District one night in the fall of 2006, Mayor Michael Coleman noted the dark streets and promised to support replacement of the lights. Planning on the lighting project moved forward quickly. Mayor Coleman joined Kate Christobek, president of USG, and other university and community leaders on July 11, 2007, in a ground-breaking ceremony for the project.
