Program Overview
Street Lighting maintains and replaces lighting and electrical equipment in the public right-of-way. In total, Milwaukee has approximately 77,000 street lights and 10,000 alley lights.
The City of Milwaukee has two different types of street lighting circuits that power the city’s street lights:
1. Series Circuits - Dating back to the early 1900s, series circuits send constant current to each street light at a higher voltage. Similar to old-fashioned holiday string lights, if one light goes out or if there is a fault in the circuit, all street lights after the faulty pathway will not receive any power. Series circuits cannot support LED lights due to high voltage operation.
2. Multiple Circuits - Multiple circuits are a lower voltage circuit connection with constant voltage for each street light. If one light goes out or if there is a fault in the circuit, the street
lights on the unfaulty pathway will continue working. Multiple circuits can support LED lights.
Upgrading to LED
DPW is upgrading all eligible street lights to LED by 2026. Nearly 54,000 of the city’s 87,000 street and alley lights will be updated, making 60% of Milwaukee brighter at night and reducing the number of street light outages. LED lights also decrease carbon emissions using only 50-60% of the electricity of non-LED fixtures, which result in energy cost savings that can be used by the City for circuit upgrades so all fixtures can accept LED lights.
What's Near Me?
Street lighting circuits in Milwaukee don’t follow a grid pattern like the roads do. To help you find out what types of circuits are near your home, work, or school, DPW created a map of street lighting circuits.
The map shows Series Circuits, Multiple Circuits, and places where Multiple Circuits have been or are being upgraded to LED lights. The map will be updated as LED upgrades are made.
View Map in Full Screen
Please note, map displays best on a desktop or laptop computer in full screen rather than a mobile device.