Surrey Street Lighting PFI, UK

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1 Further information Skanska AB Contact Noel Morrin, SVP Sustainability & Green Construction Surrey Street Lighting PFI, UK Case Study 78 Aspects of Sustainability This project highlights the following: The Surrey Street Lighting PFI (Private Finance Initiative) involves modernizing the County of Surrey s entire street lighting system to provide higher quality and more efficient street lighting over a 25-year period. Social Aspects Human Resources Corporate Community Involvement Business Ethics Health and Safety Environmental Aspects Energy and Climate Materials Ecosystems Local Impacts Economic Aspects Project Selection Supply Chain Value Added Skanska Color Palette Energy Carbon Materials Water Click here for more information Project Introduction The Surrey Street Lighting PFI is conducted by a 50/50 Skanska Laing Consortium and involves the design, build, finance and operation of Surrey s entire stock of lighting columns over a 25-year period. Prior to the project, Surrey s lighting stock had suffered years of insufficient investment, and much of the stock had reached the end of its design life and was becoming increasingly expensive to maintain. Almost 40 percent of the columns before the project were installed during or prior to the 1960s, including 2,600 columns from the pre-1950s. Many lighting columns had been rendered unsafe due to internal corrosion and only 17 percent of the pre-project lighting columns complied with modern safety and lighting design standards. Many of the aging lamps were also inefficient and produced inadequate lighting, in some cases operating with half their original illumination. The council had received complaints from residents about the quality of lighting and a resident survey showed that over a third of respondents were not satisfied with their street lighting. The Skanska consortium is conducting the US$ 202 million PFI for Surrey County Council and is responsible for modernizing and maintaining Surrey s street lighting from 2010 to Skanska Infrastructure Services is the sole service provider and are responsible for managing the entire project. The project will replace inefficient orange/yellow lamps with energy efficient white light sources, and install steel columns in place of old concrete and iron lamp posts. An initial survey was conducted in the first year of the project, which collated structural, lighting and column life expectancy data for the County s entire street lighting stock in a Management Information System (MIS). All the County s 89,000 streetlights will be modernized in the first five years of the project, including 70,000 column and lamp replacements, and 19,000 lamp

2 replacements for relatively new columns. The columns are being replaced on a one-for-one basis, and whole districts will be upgraded simultaneously. A Central Management System (CMS) has been installed, which consists of monitoring and control equipment on every lighting column that communicates via encrypted mobile phone technology to a control center near Guildford. The system monitors individual lamp lighting performance and energy use, allows lamps to be remotely dimmed and controlled, and can help to automatically identify or predict lamp failure. The Surrey Street Lighting PFI is the largest introduction of this type of energy efficient street lighting technology ever seen in the UK. The project moves away from the single brighter-isbetter objective of conventional lighting practices to a system that improves illumination through a more flexible and sustainable solution. The PFI also won the best public procurement category in the CIPS (Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply) Supply Management Awards in Contributing Toward Sustainable Development The Surrey Street Lighting PFI will provide higher quality street lighting and make significant energy, greenhouse gas emission (GHG) and financial savings throughout the 25-year PFI. The project will also enhance public safety and reduce light pollution. Skanska has established protocols to engage with stakeholders, and to minimize the social and environmental impacts of installation and upgrade work. The project benefitted the regional economy through local employment and the sourcing of regional subcontractors and materials. The lighting columns and lamps are designed and positioned to promote a long lifespan, and the old columns and lamps are entirely recycled by third party contractors. Social Aspects Stakeholder communication and dialogue Stakeholders, including residents, the borough, district and parish councils, police, and local crime and safety partnerships, are communicated with and consulted as early as possible to give advanced warning of work that might concern them and to allow stakeholders to contribute toward the planning process and type of replacement streetlights. Residents are informed of scheduled work in their area through advertisements in local newspapers and letters sent to them 20 days prior to the commencement of the work. The program of scheduled work is also posted on a project website to allow stakeholders to learn when work will take place in their area. Skanska provide and maintain a free phone telephone number, which is available for anyone to report public street lighting issues. Reducing public disturbance New columns are placed in the hole left by the removal of the old column in most instances to minimize the amount of ground works and public disturbance. Although new columns may be located up to 4 m from the old column if it is poorly situated. Skanska also tries to coincide the program with other highways projects where possible to minimize public disturbance. Work

3 team and local conservation officers consult with residents to decide on suitable column and lamp replacements from a selection of approved models. Parts of specially designed columns will be refurbished and re-used where possible, and any heritage columns that are retained will be re-painted. Economic Aspects is conducted according to an agreed protocol to reduce noise disturbance, minimize the time spent at each site, and to ensure that privacy issues are addressed. The remote CMS will ensure that faulty lamps are repaired more quickly and efficiently, which will provide consistent and reliable lighting for residents. The PFI has the objective of ensuring that at least 98 percent of the streetlights will be operational across the County at any given time. Public safety The project is contributing toward improved public safety by replacing the old orange/yellow lamps with modern lamps, which have a greater rendition of white lighting and improve street lighting levels. The enhanced visibility is expected to reduce street crime and the fear of crime, and decrease the number of nighttime road accidents. Prior to the project, urban areas had poor quality and insufficient lighting, and some nighttime CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) images were almost unusable. The PFI is also replacing old and structurally unsafe concrete and iron columns, which pose potential safety issues to pedestrians and motorists. The new CMS dims lamps in selected areas to save energy, although areas excluded from dimming are highway intersections and high crime areas so as to not compromise public safety. Regional employment, subcontractors and materials Around 120 people are working on the PFI, including direct labor and subcontractors. Approximately 50 percent of the workers are from Surrey. The steel columns for the project are manufactured 230 km away in Derbyshire. Reduced operational costs The project will make initial savings of over US$ 550,000 per year for the council, compared to before through more efficient lamps, and the monitoring and control capabilities of the CMS. Skanska intend to introduce new and innovative solutions to the PFI throughout the 25-year period to make further operational savings. The system also promotes more efficient maintenance routines by planning schedules in a more targeted manner and preempting lamp failure. In addition, a CMS was chosen that uses a common open protocol and enables the team to consider alternative suppliers in the future to promote contractor competition and maintain low operational costs. Long-life columns All the new steel columns are hot dipped galvanized according to the latest BS EN (British European Standards Specifications) standard, which provides internal and external corrosion protection. The columns also have a thermoplastic finish that carries a 30-year warranty, and a painted glass flake root protection system, which provides a 30-year design life and exceeds the protection offered by a conventional bitumen coating. Preserving heritage columns There are a small number of designated conservation areas in Surrey with specially designed heritage columns and lamps. The project

4 PFI viability The initial cost of the streetlight replacement and setting up the CMS and was met by a government PFI credit, worth approximately US$ 120 million. Without the credit, the County would be unable to afford to replace its aging and inefficient streetlight infrastructure. The landmark deal is expected to save Surrey taxpayers at least US$ 18 million in reduced operation and maintenance costs. Environmental Aspects Reducing environmental impacts during column installation Skanska protects existing trees when installing new columns by avoiding damaging tree roots during the excavation of trenches and by covering roots with dry sacking if trenches are to be left overnight to protect them from frost. Roots that must be removed are pruned with a sharp tool to ensure a clean cut and roots over 25 mm in diameter are not cut unless the local council s Tree Officer agrees beforehand. New columns are also not positioned too close to existing trees and possible future tree growth is considered to minimize or avoid the need for tree pruning in the future. Skanska consults the Authority Arboriculturist when pruning is required and certified arboricultural contractors conduct all major pruning work. Sites are also inspected for nesting birds and bats before and during ground works. An Environmental Advisor oversees the work if nests are found and non-mechanical equipment and hand digging techniques are used to avoid excessive disturbance to wildlife. The relevant authorities are also consulted prior to work within or adjacent to Surrey s 221 conservation areas and 63 SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest). Waste management All project waste, including redundant columns, old lamps and excess excavated soil, is segregated and entirely reused or recycled. The redundant and dismantled concrete columns are crushed into secondary recycled aggregate, which is used as sub-base material for highway and construction projects. Old metal columns are cut up and converted into raw steel blocks at steel works either in the UK or abroad. Removed lamps are 100 percent recycled at a specialist centre in the region, which ensures compliance with COSHH (Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health) regulations and the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive. Excavated soil is reused on site as backfill for the new columns, and any excess soil is used to fill and reclaim a local sand pit. Waste tarmac and concrete from excavations is crushed off-site to create sub-base material. Energy efficiency The system is designed to provide optimal street lighting as energy efficiently as possible. Surrey s street lighting will use around 18 percent less energy and result in annual energy savings of over 5,300,000 kwh once the entire County s stock of streetlights has been replaced. The most energy efficient lamps currently available have been selected for the project and LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lighting is used for all sign and bollard illumination, which typically use half the energy of conventional lamps. The CMS promotes energy

5 efficiency by managing the power consumption of each lamp, remotely controlling on/off times and dimming off-peak lighting levels by 50 percent in selected residential areas. Individual lamp wattage is also customized in consideration of lamp spacing along each street to ensure that the luminance output specification is met as efficiently as possible. Skanska intends to make use of further technological advances in lamp technology that become available during the life of the contract, such as potential LED technology for residential streets. Specific areas have also been nominated as innovation zones, where new energy efficient solutions will be trialed. Learning From Good Practice The state-of-the-art CMS is the cornerstone of the street lighting system, which enables the optimization of lighting quality and energy efficiency by monitoring and controlling individual lamps. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions In the first few years of the project, the energy efficient solutions will annually reduce GHG emissions by over 750 tons, compared with prior to the project. Over the 25-year contract, the PFI is expected to save around 58,000 tons of GHG emission in total through more efficient operation and maintenance. Minimizing light pollution The lamps selected for the project are designed to reduce light pollution, which can disrupt ecosystems and adversely affect human health. The lamps direct light downwards to ensure that only the streets are illuminated, and shields, baffles, reflectors and louvers help to reduce light spill to adjacent areas.