Let There Be Light: Electrical Crews Repair Streetlights in Pacific Beach and Downtown

The City of San Diego has been getting it done on streetlight repair over the past several months, illuminating long-troubled series circuit lights in multiple communities across the City, including Pacific Beach and Downtown. 

In a complex operation that spanned many months, City teams were able to identify needed repairs on a series of streetlights in Pacific Beach. The project required collaboration with San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) to replace faulty equipment as City electricians worked to repair underground cables, which required trenching and replacements at multiple points along the circuit. 

After identifying the problem and a plan for construction, the City worked closely with SDG&E to restore reliable electricity to the lights. Through this operation, more than 115 streetlights were restored along Garnet Avenue, Fanuel Street, Felspar Street, Everts Street, Beryl Street, La Jolla Boulevard and Turquoise Street, and the City’s Transportation Department was able to close 152 service notifications.

In another project currently underway in Pacific Beach, the City is in the design and planning phase to replace streetlights on Garnet Avenue with a more modern streetlight system. The project, which will also focus on repairs on Logan Avenue in Barrio Logan, is made possible thanks to $3.5 million in federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funding, which Congressman Scott Peters helped secure, through the Light Up San Diego Streetlight Improvement Program. 

Mayor Todd Gloria announced the funding allocation last year. Garnet Avenue and Logan Avenue are priority locations identified by the City’s Transportation Department out of 42 locations citywide in need of series circuit system replacements. 

The new parallel lighting system, in which each streetlight is individually connected to a power source, will replace outdated series circuit lighting systems originally installed in the 1920s which are now unreliable and continue to incur high maintenance costs to the City. New lighting systems will improve mobility, accessibility and safety for both pedestrians and vehicle traffic.

In a separate streetlight repair project in Downtown, City teams worked last month with Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) to perform extensive streetlight and traffic signal maintenance along the busy C Street trolley corridor. During the planned power shutoff, 40 streetlights were repaired and illuminated from Kettner Boulevard to 11th Street. The City's traffic signal technicians also worked on and restored signal communications on C Street from Park Boulevard to Front Street, and on Park Boulevard at Broadway, E and F streets. 

Thanks to the quick and careful work of these City teams, 100% of the C Street corridor is now lit. 

“Because of the strategic planning and coordination of our City electrical teams, we were able to restore lighting and optimize signal function in Downtown’s C Street Corridor in one weekend,” said Phil Lowery, Transportation Department Deputy Director. “This work, as well as the grant-funded streetlight modernization conversions, will have significant impact on future outages and keep these areas lit long term.” 

The Transportation Department maintains more than 55,000 streetlights citywide and has made progress in addressing the backlog of approximately 6,000 streetlights in need of repair and replacement. Get It Done service notifications of broken streetlights tend to have long repair timelines due to the complex nature of streetlight circuits and potential delays in acquiring necessary parts to make the repairs. The latest projects on streetlight circuits in Downtown and Pacific Beach represent a continued improvement in the City’s streetlight repair program.

You can find more information about streetlights and report streetlight outages on the City’s Get It Done webpage.