The Washington State Department of Transportation plans to replace streetlights along roughly three miles of Interstate 90 between Liberty Park and the Latah Creek bridges, says Al Gilson, spokesman for DOT's eastern region.

Two federally funded projects were bid separately, and Northwest Electric LLC, of Woodland, Wash., won both jobs, which have a combined value of about $2.4 million.

The project entails replacing street lamps, also referred to as luminaires, and light poles along the stretch of I-90, as well as replacing all underground conduit, conductors, and junction boxes.

Between the two projects, 150 new luminaire poles and light systems will be installed to replace systems that have been in place since the 1960s, Gilson says. The new light systems will use light-emitting diode (LED) illumination technology.

The first project, running from Division Street to the Latah Creek bridges, was awarded in November with a contractor bid of $1.2 million. The project came in under the engineer estimate of $1.4 million.

The second project, awarded in mid-December with a contractor bid of about $1.2 million, specifically affects about a mile-long section of I-90 between Division Street and the vicinity of Liberty Park. That winning bid came in over the engineer's estimate of roughly $1 million.

A construction timeline has yet to be determined, Gilson says.