HARLINGEN, Texas - There are lights the end of the tunnel at the Port of Harlingen administrative building.
In fact, there are 100 of them.
The lights are the culmination of a $3.2 million project that includes lightening up make a once-dark area where the port’s main offices are located.
A French-based company based in Fort Worth installed the off-grid lights, each of which is powered by a solar panel.
Hocine Benaoum, chief executive officer with Fonroche Lighting America, said this is the first time they have brought their technology to a port like this one.
“We started as a small company a few years ago,” he said, “and we now we are in 46 states.”
Benaoum thanked the port board and the community during an event held Tuesday, Feb. 17, to unveil the project on the day of the Lunar New Year.
The new lighting system is set to come on at 6:40 p.m. every day and it will brighten up an area Port Director Walker Smith said has been pitch black over the years.
“This has been one of our biggest needs,” Smith said. “When I took over the port in 2014 we did not have a lot of things here.”
Smith said the port has experienced a 400 percent growth in commercial activity.
Yet, he added, such growth can’t be sustained if the infrastructure is not kept up.
“We received funding for $3.2 million for our projects,” Smith said. “It’s now very bright in the middle of the night here.”
The port headquarters is located on Port Road just east of Harlingen but it has remained obscure due to the poor illumination.
Geir Eilif Kalhagen, director of Texas Department of Transportation’s maritime division, said one of TxDOT’S missions is to partner with stakeholders needing assistance with improvement projects.
He said TxDOT allocated $200 million in 1984 for seaport infrastructure projects and now provides $40 million every two years.
“It was a need for them,” he said about the lighting project, “and they got it.”
Fonroche Lighting was founded in 2011. Since then, the company has installed some 175,000 solar street lights for projects ranging from 50,000 systems down to single units.
Fonroche Connect monitors the energy generation, storage and performance of thousands of systems located across five continents, Benaoum explained.
Here in the Texas, Fonroche has trained field technicians who provide onsite installation support and field warranty service.
Fonroche Lighting America is headquartered in Agen, France.
