North Brabant: Road lighting on a provincial road

Item: Road lighting on a provincial road
Pilot partners: Province of North-Brabant, Dura Vermeer and Hoeflake Infratechniek

Why participate?
Sustainability is seamlessly embedded in many of the province of North-Brabant’s policy areas. In infrastructure projects, the province always looks for solutions that are least harmful to the environment and the climate, for example, the use of high-quality secondary materials. Every four years, North Brabant draws up a sustainability balance sheet. The results provide pain points for the social debate on these topics.

Of all the provinces, North Brabant is leading the way with “as a service” for infrastructure items. The Circular Road pilot to install sustainable, energy-efficient LED lighting along the provincial road between ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Veghel, was launched in 2019. The road lighting along the 17 km stretch of road between Den Bosch and Veghel is being provided on a true “as a service” basis. The contractors own the lampposts and lease the road lighting to the province for a fixed quarterly fee. They themselves are responsible for the uninterrupted operation and maintenance of the more than 400 lampposts.

Operating as “smart” as possible
The
“as a service” contract encourages Dura Vermeer and Hoeflake to operate the lighting as sustainably, energy-efficiently and “smartly” as possible. The lighting is provided by highly energy-efficient LED bulbs with a very long service life. By adjusting the lighting dynamically to the weather conditions, outside light and traffic intensity, no more energy is ever used than is necessary. And because this requires less from the luminaires, they last much longer and do not need to be replaced as quickly.

Results
The project has now been completed successfully and this has become a normal working method for the province. Significant reductions have been achieved by intelligently controlling light intensity based on the volume of traffic, weather conditions and also passing emergency services. In the first phase, 55% energy savings were achieved and the lifespan of the luminaires was extended by 5-10 years. It has also had a positive effect on biodiversity.