Yep, Niall summed it up pretty well

I also haven't seen any newly installed direct buried metal poles, the new ones are all bolted to a concrete base.

iv'e never seen any direct burial metal poles,only Wood.

but the Idea is pretty cool though,and anyone know how big the foundation for a Non-Direct Burial Pole is?

Hmm according to this our bases are around 30" in diameter and 7 to 10 feet deep depending on how high the pole is.

Direct buried poles in my area is MORE common than GULLS! Perfect example here, in the picture on the link, the only the ones with tapered E arms and has fiberglass poles are the ones direct buried....the others are mounted differently and are older installations...also for the galvanized steel poles in my area, look at the shorter pole with the GE sag lens that one is also direct buried and is everywhere in my utility land as well as the fiberglass poles

Update: These poles have all been fixed so they are no longer leaning!

Did they keep these fixtures or replace them?

Yep they kept the fixtures, there wasn't any reason to replace them, the poles and fixtures day's are numbered anyways, the road is to be widened shortly

Yeah iirc the last time I was there they were already changing the utility poles and it looks like this area is going to be developed soon.

Yeah, its kind of sad

Remember back when Bovaird was two lanes and the train station and houses in here weren't built yet?

Can't remember what the lumes were back then back then but I believe that only the intersections were lit.

These poles are now gone, but the fixtures aren't! They are now on the other side of the road on tempoary wooden poles.

I guess they're going to wait until the road get widened before putting up the OVXs.

Yeah, I saw the new 50 foot concrete poles laying in bundles... Speaking of OVXs, remember these? Well guess what replaced them two days ago...

Ugh, they got rid of it, I've wanted to see that light in person.

Yep it's gone, replaced by a 50 foot concrete pole 8 foot arm and 400 watt OVX. The other poles like it just down the road was also replaced, it would of been cool to get one of the fixtures but I guess that won't happen... Oh, and these where direct burial poles, they had cut the base off the other one and it was left laying beside the new pole.

Wonderful I never really got the appeal of using the 400w OVX, are they significantly cheaper than a real 400w lume.

I think they must be, otherwise I don't see why contractors wouldn't use the 125 or OVD instead. They are also a bit lighter so they are easier to install but other than that I can't see why they are used so frequently.

Maybe it's all that and the fact that the OVX has the same refractor so fewer parts.

The contractor doesn't stock refractors, don't forget here we have one "maintenance" contractor that relamps, replaces cobras, replaces single poles (after accidents) and things of that nature. Then the city bids the other large jobs (group lighting "upgrades") and other things like that to other contractors. And a third set of contractors (which could be the same as the ones that do group upgrades) are contracted by developers to install lights in new neighbourhoods. Anyways, back to the refractors, the maintenance contractor doesn't stock them, they just salvage them from the cobras they take down for scrap. That means if they don't have any used refractor on the truck the fixture will be replaced regardless of age. I also saw a brand new 115 go up with the refractor of the R37 it replaced, my guess is they broke the refractor on the 115 and gave it the old refractor from the R37, that entire pole was replaced less than two months after that with a new concrete pole and another new 115.

I doubt most contractors here stock more than a new PC and lamp on the truck so if it needs more than a new lamp/PC they usually junk the fixture and put up a wonderful 115/OVF/OVX.