Interesting

Gotta say, that is a very bizarre fixture

Wow a REAL cobrahead!

That must have been expensive! Looks a bit difficult to install the cobraheads too. For all that trouble they should've gone with a better quality fixture, i.e. a GE with a glass lens.

The Coopers aren't that bad, but a glass lens would have been nice. As far as current cobraheads are concerned, GE's are quite flimsy. They've degraded their cobraheads quite a bit over the past 20 years, especially the M-250R2 and M-250A2. The 1997-present M-400s are pretty solid though. The reflector is held in with three screws and doesn't wobble around like the M-250R2/A2 reflectors and the latches engage more securely on the M-400/M-400A. Also the hinge design is better too (M-250R2 hinges sometimes bind and snap off, though it's not as big of an issue as it was with the M-250R1s).

For current cobraheads Cooper actually probably makes the best ones. AEL has nice designs but their paint always chips off in large chunks and I've been told the Advance ballasts they use aren't the greatest. But I can't say for sure since the newest AE fixture I have is from 1990, pre-AEL/Acuity Brands.

I wonder if these Coopers are original or if they replaced 400W Mv lights?

The parking garage was built in 1961 so the original fixtures must have been something else. I'm guess the OVXs were installed when they changed from mercury to sodium. Would have been nice to see a close up of the poles with the original fixtures.

Looks like this was designed for clamshells.

Possibly. If so the ballasts must've been in the pole bases. I looked around online and apparently the original lighting inside the garage was fluorescent. No close-up pictures of these lights back in the day though.

EDIT: Found a pic of the lights "back in the day". Still not close enough to tell what is used though.

I wonder what fixtures could they be, I don't see much of a drop lens on them.

I really hate it when it is obvious there used to be something different somewhere (as seen here) but we will never know what it was.

Note the clamshell and M-400A on the metal highway poles below the parking garage though.

At least if a drunk driver crashed into one of these they would get some instant karma.

If you manage to get drunk while parked at a parking garage you might as well just sleep in the car because there's no way you're going to maneuver your way out of that maze of concrete lol. As a normally-conscious person I hate parking garages so as a drunk I'd be really lost in there lol.

The concrete poles in my area do get knocked down from time to time. I suppose a drunk driver speeding in a SUV or a pickup should be able to knock em down.

Yeah, most parking garages are a PITA to get in and out of so I'd imagine a drunk driver wouldn't get far before they manage to hit something.

Yeah if you hit anything at high enough speed you'll knock it down unless it's REALLY big like a 2ft diameter solid reinforced concrete column or something lol. At least with an anchor base pole with breakaway couplings (typically steel or aluminum but I've heard concrete ones exist too, with steel bases?) you can typically reinstall the pole when it's been hit. Thought most times with aluminum poles the shaft of the pole dents in from the impact before the breakaway couplings shear so the pole is useless afterwards anyway. Aluminum poles with no breakaway base usually will either fail at the base weld or the shaft will shear from what I've seen.

Aluminum is pretty cheesy stuff compared to steel or concrete. It serves its purpose well but it's no match for some @$$hole doing 90 on the freeway in an SUV lol. But that is not always a bad thing though since with steel poles, if they get hit and don't have a breakaway base, they'll often withstand the impact and not break. What ends up happening is that the anchor bolts shear either at the nuts that hold the pole on or where they enter the concrete foundation and then that's a multi-thousand dollar job digging out the old concrete foundation and putting in a new one. So for steel poles the breakaway bases are a no brainer. For Aluminum I'd say if you use a thin enough pole it will take care of the breakway thing on its own lol. Happens here with the RIDOT and NGrid poles with no breakaway couplings (and even some with them, if the base of the pole somehow ends up below grade level and the pole gets hit just right)

Yeah, over here the Polefab steel poles are designed to shear at the base during a collision but the octagonal steel poles aren't. The impact causes the anchor bolts to shear or bend and then you have to wait 3 months for a new foundation (since we pour our bases) to be ready. If it's a signal pole they'll put up a wooden temporary pole in the time being. The MTO uses breakaway couplings and I think they reuse poles and sometimes arms after a knockdown. The Polefab poles are also sectional so I've seen them put on a new base base section and the reuse the pole and arm.


I've seen concrete poles with anchor bases which could in theory be used with a breakaway coupling. In practice, it's never done since the inertia of the concrete pole since it's so heavy results in heavy damage to the vehicle anyway.

Interesting setup. Kina cool looking too.