Lighting
up Beirut

Project to begin next year

The Municipality of Beirut has asked the France-based Aartill Lighting Consultants to set a strategy for a master plan to light up the city of Beirut.

The expected outcome is energy savings, aesthetic street improvement and overall optimization of the lighting network.

The master plan, designed in collaboration with local firm 4B Architects, has a budget of $50 million, to be funded by the municipality. Mayor Bilal Hamad said he hoped the implementation would begin next year. Completion is expected to take ten years.

Beirut will be lit with 17,000 LED street lights to reduce power consumption by 24 percent. The current lighting network is made up of 10,000 electricity poles that have not lately been maintained, according to a report by Aartill.

The plan would adopt smart technology as street lighting will be preprogrammed to be dimmed up to 50 percent between one and five a.m.

There will be two key lighting trails: The Waterfront District (Corniche) and Damascus Road.

The master plan includes two implementation methods: A traditional business-as-usual-approach or a Built-Operate-Transfer scheme with the private sector.