Street Lighting

Who Puts Street Lights Along County Roads?


You may have seen a number of street lights (we call them luminaires) along county roads. Most of these have not been installed by the county. The majority were paid for by private companies, individuals, or homeowner's associations. These lights are maintained by the owner or by the local power company.
Street light

Why We Don't Put Lights Along All County Roads


Frankly, we couldn't afford to install, maintain, and pay for electricity for street lighting
along all county roads. For that reason, our policy is to install street lighting when there
is a traffic-related need only at the following locations:
  • Signalized intersections
  • Arterials with curbs, islands, or median within the travelway
  • As part of major construction projects in areas with a high concentration of commercial development
  • Arterial locations having high reported accident histories where a significantly
    large proportion of those accidents happened at night
  • Intersections that have been identified for future signalization where lighting can
    be economically installed on a short-term basis

Requesting Street Lights and Reporting Outages


If you would like us to consider a location that meets one of the above criteria for street lighting, please email us or call us at (253) 798-7250. Include the road name and cross street(s), your name, address, and daytime telephone number.

To report an outage of a county-operated street light, please call (253) 798-8000.

If you are interested in street lighting or want to report an outage (at a non-county maintained location), contact your local utility company. For your convenience some of the local power company phone numbers are listed below.
Power Company
Phone Number
Elmhurst Mutual Power & Light Co.
(253) 531-4646
Lakeview Light & Power
(253) 584-6060
Ohop Mutual Light Co
(253) 847-4363
Parkland Light & Water Co
(253) 531-5666
Peninsula Light Co
(253) 857-5950
Pierce County Public Works
(253) 798-8000
Puget Sound Energy
(888) 225-5773
Tacoma Street Light Division
(253) 591-5287
Contact Us
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Phone: (253) 798-7250

After Hours Emergency:
(253) 798-6000
Tacoma Mall Plaza
2702 S 42nd St, Suite 109
Tacoma, WA 98409