BATON ROUGE - The area near the Trevor J. Sims Memorial Bridge is going to get a little brighter after the city makes a few upgrades. 

The City of Baton Rouge will add brand new, energy-efficient LED lighting along a stretch of North Boulevard, from 10th Street to 19th Street including along and under the Trevor J. Sims Bridge.

In 2013, the North Boulevard overpass was renamed the Trevor J. Sims Memorial Bridge — a name coming from a little boy who lived his life trying to help others.

Ingolf Partenheimer, the chief traffic engineer for the city, says the project will save taxpayers money in the long-run.

“This is going to be a pilot project for us to investigate LED's, to see what kind of savings we can get," he said. "It should make some interesting lighting out there, instead of the yellowish tint it'll be a clear tint, and so it should improve the driver’s visibility, as well as save the city some money." 

The project will cost about $4,500 and taxpayer money will be used.

The contractor hasn’t been selected yet, so the exact design is unknown, but the new lights will run off less energy.

“Currently, we are using 250-watt high-pressure sodium lights and will be replacing them with LED street lights which use about 130-150 watts of power and will have a 10-year-warranty,” he said.

The city chose this bridge to enhance, because it's city-owned and they don't need approval from state.  If successful, more areas will get the new lights.

The work will start in about two and a half months and could done by Christmas time.