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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- After years of being left in the dark, there may soon be a light at the end of the...well, street in Colorado Springs.

In 2009 the city's budget debacle let to the decision to turn off about a third of the city's streetlights in order to save about $1.3 million. Most of the streetlights shut off in neighborhoods have been turned back on, but many of the city's main streets remain dark.

So, will those streetlights ever be turned back too?

According to city traffic engineers - hopefully.

"We're looking at how we can appropriately light those streets," principal traffic engineer Rob Helt said.

Late in 2009, the city received a more than $3.5 million federal grant as part of the Recovery Act. That money is being used to install energy efficient lights in various parts of the city, which could eventually change the city's lighting standards.

"What we're hoping to demonstrate is that the city can save money, light its community well and reduce its emissions," Jay Anderson, an innovations analyst for the City of Colorado Springs, said.

As part of a pilot program, about 350 LED light fixtures have been installed in and around downtown Colorado Springs. Anderson said the installation of different types of LED lights will allow for more "intelligent lighting" in the city with better light coverage on streets which could lead to the need for fewer light poles.

"The light fixture is designed to cast a rectangular pool of light onto the ground," Anderson said. "It's because of the directional nature of these that we can relook at our lighting standards as opposed to traditional bulbs that just cast light around a small globe and waste light."

Anderson said the program has been successful so far, but the results will not be known until the program concludes in August.

In the meantime, they city's traffic engineers are also conducting an LED light study. They are assessing light fixtures that have been installed along the Milton Proby Parkway and plan to install more in neighborhoods near Memorial Hospital and downtown.

"Once we start putting up alternative light sources we'll ask for public input," Helt said. "We want to see what the public's perception of the lower light levels, the different light colors, things like that, in order to develop the lighting standard in the future."

Helt said he has received complaints that the light fixtures illuminating parts of the Milton Proby Parkway are too bright, and that it the area is overlit.

"We need to look at spacing," Helt said.

Helt said traffic engineers are currently working with a consulting company that specializes in alternative lighting to determine the best light fixtures and light levels for the city. He said, for now, the city streetlights that are off will likely remain that way until the end of this year or early 2013 depending upon the results of the study.