South East LED roadside lighting upgrades

We’re cutting carbon emissions in the South East by switching to cleaner LED lights, making our motorways and A-roads greener and more energy efficient.

The south east of England will benefit from a £132m nationwide project switching 70% of lights on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) to cleaner LED alternatives by 2027. This involves replacing over 50,000 lights across the country.

By March 2027, we will have retrofitted most of the lighting in the region – taking the amount of environmentally friendly LED lights across the network to at least 70%.

Why we need this scheme

We use thousands of lighting columns to keep road journeys safe on our motorways and major A-roads. The majority of these lights still use old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs.

We're working to replacing them with LED lights because they use far less energy than conventional bulbs to produce the same amount of light.

Depending on the type of bulbs we are replacing, this could reduce the energy we use for lighting by 65%.

LED lights also have a longer lifespan, meaning less maintenance and fewer replacements on our network, minimising the disruption to our customers and local communities.

Where we're working

We’re currently surveying our road network to find opportunities to upgrade and install LED lighting.

We will always aim to keep disruption to a minimum when carrying out work on the roads we manage.

The upgrade work typically requires lane closures to keep our staff safe from moving traffic, particularly when we’re working in the central reservation or close to the carriageway.

You can view more about the schemes currently in progress below.

Latest updates

25 January 2024

We’ll be starting surveys of the existing lighting on the A21 between Kipping’s Cross to John’s Cross on Monday 29 January. This information will help us plan our upgrades.

We’ll be using a mixture of overnight temporary traffic lights, lane and full closures.

See more updates

Project information

We’re currently surveying our road network to find opportunities to upgrade and install LED lighting.

More details of individual LED lighting schemes, including any closures, will be available here.

We’re carrying out surveys of the existing lighting on the A21 between Kipping’s Cross and John’s Cross to help us plan our upgrades.

We’ll be using a mixture of overnight temporary traffic lights, lane and full closures, as detailed below. All work will be carried out between 8pm and 6am unless stated.

Please remember that closure details can change at short notice. For the most up-to-date information, please visit our daily closures page.

We’re carrying out surveys of the existing lighting on the roundabouts on the A27 between Beddingham and Arundel to help us plan our upgrades.

We’ll be using a mixture of overnight temporary traffic lights, lane and full closures, as detailed below. All closures are between 8pm and 6am only.

Please remember that closure details can change at short notice. For the most up-to-date information, please visit our daily closures page.

We’re upgrading the street lighting at the A40 Denham Roundabout with more energy efficient light emitting diode (LED) technology.

Our work to upgrade the existing lighting network will start on Friday 17 October 2025 and is anticipated to be completed by early November 2026.

We’ll need approximately 95 shifts over the next twelve months to complete the scheme.

We’ll use lane closures and road closures which we’ll install at night between 10pm and 6am.

We’ll start work near the Oxford Road junction and progress in a clockwise direction, replacing the lighting around the inner ring of the roundabout first before moving onto the lighting around the outer ring of the roundabout.

The Denham Roundabout carries traffic in both directions. Typically, when we need to close one side of the carriageway (e.g., clockwise) we’ll divert traffic around the roundabout in the opposite direction (e.g., anticlockwise).

Less frequently, we’ll need to divert traffic away from the roundabout using local roads; diversion routes will be fully signed.