Sorry, I have no pics but I was driving on 280 the other night and noticed as I got to the 101 interchange some of the 400 watt HPS fixtures had been replaced with some new, really bright LED heads. The light output was a beautiful white and seemed almost as nearly as bright. I do not know the make/model of the fixtures. Has anyone else seen these and do you know the make? I knew San Jose was testing this type of fixture but didn't realize they would be trying them out on the freeway.

First of all, welcome to L-G! I'm located in California as well. There are at least 8 lighting guys in CA, 3 up north and 5 down here in SoCal, me included.

I knew about the city of San Jose installing LEDs, but that's a first I've heard of on freeways (except on a couple bridges). Freeway lighting, FYI, is maintained by Caltrans. Here in Southern CA the city of LA installed LED street lights in some areas but I haven't seen any on the freeways yet. There are still some old mercury lights on the freeways here.

Yeah I thought the city of San Jose was going to start  replacing some of the lights around the city first. I saw a few about a year ago in one of their test areas by the juvenile hall and read they were going to eventually replace all 65,000 of the streetlights in the city with LEDs. I was totally surprised when I saw these fixtures on the freeway, which, as you said, is maintained by CalTrans. So I wonder now if CT has done this anywhere else around the bay area or is this just isolated to San Jose?

I will try to get a pic of one the next time I drive it. They are really nice fixtures and I was surprised at how bright they were and how much light covered the area, considering they are LEDs and are that high up.

You know I'm glad I found this site. This has been a fascination of mine ever since I can remember. when I was a kid, my uncle worked for PG&E and got me a new streetlight fixture and a bunch of HPS bulbs, plus I was already reading tech bulletins on all the different lamp types. I don't know what it is but these fixtures and light sources are so interesting they draw you to them. I just started up my hobby again, although my collection is quite small right now, I hope to eventually build it up. At one point I had a multitude of MV, HPS, MH fixtures as well as a traffic signal and a neon don't walk signal, all in good working order. Most of that is gone now but I am starting over. So far, I have a 175watt Mh ballast for my clear and coated 175watt MV lamps, don't have any MH lamps yet, and I also have a clear and a coated 160watt SBMV lamp. I have also got a Regent SFL type floodlight that was origainally a 100watt MV fixture that I converted to a 70MH fixture, very nice light. And our neighbor across the street has a 175watt MV yard-type-light over the driveway with a coated bulb, it's probably been in there for 10 years, still nice and bright but the ballast makes all kinds of noise. And yes, I am in favor of bringing back MV lighting simply because it's a good- less expensive and long lasting light source plus it's kind of neat.

Ok I rambled a bit but I'll try to get a pic of the LED roadway light.

My city has also been experimenting with LED streetlights though I haven't seen any on the roads though they do want to replace all 40,000 of their old streetlights.

I'm glad xcell energy never uses LEDs. the only LEDS you will see in Denver are at the 7-11s.

everything else is HPS, which is MUCH better than LED.

The city here put in a test installation of LED street lights about a year ago.  I had my doubts but having seen them at the dark now, they are starting to grow on me.

Yeah I don't know, I'm not too crazy about them just because I don't want them everywhere, energy savings or not. But I will say the color of the light is brilliant and a beautiful white. I would not complain if they replaced the horrible LPS streetlights all over SJ with LED fixtures, at least that way you wouldn't have streetlights making everything look awfull.  I just wonder if the nearby observatory approves of the new, white light source and how it would affect their viewing.