CASE STUDY / WEST VIRGINIA HIGHWAYS
WV DOH Upgrades Interstate Lighting to Holophane High
Mast LED to Cut Operating Costs, Improve Safety
Advanced luminaires yield 5- to 7- year payback based on maintenance and energy savings.
DETAILS
Project:
West Virginia Highways I-77, I-64 and I-79
Project Size:
567 high mast luminaires
Lighting Specifier:
WVDOT
​Lighting Manufacturers:
Holophane®
Products:
HMAO™ LED
The Challenge
The West Virginia Division of Highways
maintains the sixth largest highway system
in the nation. Drivers travel 35,893 miles
of state-owned highways, 835 miles of
federally-owned roads and 486 miles of
state-owned interstate highway, traversing
rugged mountainous terrain and
picturesque river valleys.
Maintaining the lighting system that
illuminates the state’s highways had
become time consuming and expensive.
A crew of four workers was generally on
the road every two days to change lamps
and make other repairs to the high mast
fixtures that light West Virginia’s interstate
interchanges.
© 2015 Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc. All rights reserved. | www.acuitybrands.com/infrastructure
The West Virginia Department of
Transportation (WVDOT) had a project
that recently upgraded 567 high mast
luminaires installed along heavily travelled
I-77, I-64 and I-79 to HMAO™ LED high
mast luminaires from Holophane to
reduce maintenance and overall operating
costs. The original fixtures, located in
four central West Virginia counties near
Charleston, were Holophane HMST®
luminaires with 400-watt high pressure
sodium lamps installed 10-20 years earlier.
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CASE STUDY / WEST VIRGINIA HIGHWAYS
The Solution:
Illuminating WVDOT
The WVDOT added the HMAO LED units
to the approved product list (APL) after
conducting a year-long pilot with several
systems installed at interchanges near
Milton and Charleston. According to
Brandi Krofcheck, ITS/Asset Management
Engineer, Traffic Engineering Division,
WVDOT, the LED system will reduce
maintenance by more than 50 percent.
The HMAO luminaires use a modular
chip design to provide up to 100,000
hours of operating life with virtually no
maintenance while significantly reducing
energy consumption.
HMAO LED luminaires replaced previous
high mast units one for one and were
mounted on existing 100- to 140-foot
round tapered steel poles with lowering
devices. Poles are generally 100 feet from
the roadway but some are up to 140 feet
when obstacles are present. An average
eight luminaires are mounted per pole
although some poles have as few as
four luminaires and others as many as 10
depending on the location and terrain.
Poles are spaced 600 to 700 feet apart.
“Maintenance was a primary factor in the retrofit but we also wanted to reduce
overall operating costs and improve driver safety,” Krofcheck said. “West
Virginia drivers travel through various types of terrain in quickly changing
weather – including dense fog. We want drivers to have sufficient illumination to
safely enter and exit the interstates, which will help prevent accidents resulting
from vehicles going the wrong way.”
© 2015 Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc. All rights reserved. | www.acuitybrands.com/infrastructure
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CASE STUDY / WEST VIRGINIA HIGHWAYS
LED Installation
Upgrading the high mast system
to LED restored illumination to the
design, level of 1 footcandle, with
4:1 average to minimum uniformity.
Fifty high mast units have asymmetric
distribution because of their proximity
to houses and the other 517 units have
symmetric distribution. The HMAO LED
luminaires are controlled by photocells
on a control station, with one point
of contact for an entire interchange.
Krofcheck said the WVDOT received
many calls from drivers commenting on
the improved lighting.
“People indicated they didn’t realize
how dark the roadways were in the past
until we installed the LED luminaires,”
she said. “The white light creates a
bright and highly visible environment so
drivers can read signage and view other
vehicles. The color rendering index
(CRI) is greatly improved, which helps
individuals identify the colors of vehicles
in the event of an accident.”
© 2015 Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc. All rights reserved. | www.acuitybrands.com/infrastructure
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CASE STUDY / WEST VIRGINIA HIGHWAYS
The Result
Krofcheck estimates the LED luminaires
will reduce energy consumption by
more than 25 percent compared to
the HPS system. The system upgrade
cost approximately $2 million and has a
projected payback of five to seven years.
The interstate retrofit is the first of a three
phase project, with the WVDOT planning
to update high mast units along U.S. 50
during Phase II. WVDOT renovated 16
high mast towers along the West Virginia
Turnpike to HMAO LED luminaires as part
of Phase I.
Roadway Lighting Solutions:
When working towards sustainability initiatives, installing a complete roadway solution
with LED fixtures can be extremely beneficial to maximize savings. The WVDOT utilized
the following roadway luminaires to achieve its lighting goals.
¡¡ The HMAO LED is a highly engineered product providing long system life, excellent
uniformity, substantially reduced maintenance costs and significant energy reduction.
Available in several lumen packages and distributions the HMAO LED provides an
expected service life of over 100,000 hours. Replacing the HMAO LED is the new
HMAO LED II, extending lumen packages up to 62,000 lumens for applications
replacing 400-1000W HID incumbents.
© 2015 Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc. All rights reserved. | www.acuitybrands.com/infrastructure
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