You may have noticed two black solar bollards near the walking path on West Bench Hill Road.  Yes, I know they are different heights, the wrong color, and pretty pathetic looking.  These are two test installations of a product we are considering for unlit portions of the path.  We want to see how the bollards perform in action (light, durability, and so on) before we spend a bunch of money.

Ultimately, we hope to continue lighting the walking path from the end of the new lights to the first white bridge. After that, the old West Bench street lights take over. Recall that the original lighting project had a limited budget and took advantage of infrastructure laid during the water system upgrade.  We did not run conduit and concrete bases all the way up to the white bridge because we had no idea that the lights would be so popular. In addition to this, we felt at the time that large street lights would be inappropriate as we rounded the corner because they would be visible to a large number of houses.  Although the new lights are designed to direct light down, they still spill some light.  We felt that people would be unenthusiastic about looking out their windows at night and seeing their city views overwhelmed by streetlights.

The solar bollards are relatively cheap, do not require electrical connections (conduit), and spill very little light (because the are so low to the ground).  Unfortunately, our test models seem a bit wimpy.  That is, they are not holding enough charge in the winter to light the path past 10 PM.  We are in discussions with the supplier (see link).  The other part of the test is going somewhat better: they have yet to be kicked over...