Springfield Smart City Planning Starts with Smart Streetlamps

Every journey begins with a first step. If we’re talking about upgrading municipal infrastructure and striving toward attaining smart city status this journey is much more of a marathon than a sprint. As adoption of smarter infrastructure takes hold around the country, we are getting a front row seat for this evolution.

The City of Springfield, Illinois announced a preliminary plan to deploy new technology, allowing the city to save money and energy via increased efficiency. The first phase of the project is adding sensors to streetlamps.  

Springfield Chief Innovation Officer Tom Chi noted city leaders are still finalizing Springfield’s smart city plan but continued noting sensor-equipped streetlamps can detect movement, as well as deter crime.

"The ability to brighten and dim streetlights for efficiency savings from a utilities standpoint, so if it doesn't detect any vehicles or if it doesn't detect any pedestrians, it can dim the lights…If it detects loud noises or if we have it tied into acoustic sensors, we can have it brighten up to aid in investigations or just aid in public safety in general," Chi explained.

The city is currently in the process of converting all of its 18,000 streetlights to LED at the rate of 900 a year. At the time of this writing, the city remains sensorless, but fret not, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.