Combine inky darkness with a double shot of wildlife on a winding, steep road and that was Foothills Boulevard north of the Nechako River on a good night.
Snow, sleet, black ice or rain posed even more of a challenge. Until now.
There are 33 new straight-armed street lights shining brightly from North Nechako Road to Highland Drive. The lights were installed at a cost of $26,463. The second phase will see 17 more lights installed in early 2017 to the top of the hill at Vellencher Road. Lighting from Vellencher to Chief Lake Road will be done in the future with no further details available on a time frame.
"The City of Prince George came to us and said they would like this lighting project to go forward," said Bob Gammer, community relations regional manager.
"So they come with money to the table and we also made a contribution so that it is a shared funding project."
The type of bulb used is a 150 watt high pressure sodium street light, which is typical of what people are used to seeing, said Gammer.
"The crew and the design team understood that these lights are set back from the road more than what you would see in a typical street setting so what they did to compensate for that is they angled the lights as much as they could so the arm is on a bit of a higher angle and the light is shining more onto the road," said Gammer.
"That way they are more effective."
The project started when Mayor Lyn Hall reached out to BC Hydro to see if lights on Foothills was even feasible.
"We heard about it at Talktober and we had residents say to us 'look, can you do something by providing lighting on Foothills' and so it was a few things that came together at the best possible time," said Hall. "We were able to create a really good partnership with Hydro who installed the 33 lights from North Nechako up to Highland Drive and the next phase will see from Highland to Vellencher and we'd like ultimately to light right up to Chief Lake Road."
