This pole has had no light or arm for a while. At least a few years now. the leads that go though the arm are still there though. Looks like the wires may have arced against the pole? see the dark ring on the pole?
I've reported this string of lights to NGrid and they said 6-8 weeks for repairs so I'll check back around Thanksgiving or Christmas. Not getting my hopes up though... I was a little hesitant reporting them because soem of them have old style deep GE glass lenses and old Ripley Sunswitch photocells but this area needs to be lit. The sad thing is that the light gray multivolt Ripleys were last used in 1990-ish here so that means these lights have their original lamps and PCs and no one's ever bothered to service them even thoug they've been dead for years. Most have baby blue or brown PCs though. The baby blues were used from about 1990-1992 so those are probably originals too. The brown PCs were used from the mid 90s up to the mid-to-late 2000s but these brown PCs are no later than the early 2000s since these lights haven't worked for as long as I can remember.
It's a real shame that NGrid pretty much neglects the freeway lighting here that they're in charge of. They've been starting to fix up a lot of lights but they've sometimes been inconsistant. The fixed a string of light behind this pic on Rte 10 and every single light worked GREAT for like a month and now none work. I don't know if it's a blown fuse or what but I think the 1960s wiring isn't holding up too well anymore...
Ahh okay so it's not just me. They seem to take acceptable care of the wood pole lights but the freeway lights? Forget it! Here the freeway lights are leased to the state just as wood pole lights are leased to the city (i guess RI is one of the only places like that? It's always been that way though...)
But when thy finally do get around to fixing the lights you can tell because practically all the lights are shiney and new because they don't replace starting aids which all pretty much fail after a couple years of a cycling lamp.
What bugs me the most is that the taxpayers of RI PAY for these lights (the standard rental fee and estimated kWh charge) whether these lights work or not. I'm 15 and 5 months and i can vaguely ever remember one or two of these lights ever working. I reported a lot of freeway lights. the told me i needed to report individual poles so I went on Google Streetview and got all 150 pole numbers of freeway lights througout RI that I know are out and reported them all lol. Then they told me that the maintenance department requested them to not process any more reports for freeway lights, as they're aware of the issue. Well that's all fien and dandy that they know about it but when are the doing to DO something about it?
Sounds to me that NGrid doesn't seem to care much about they're freeway lights. If they aren't going to do proper maintenance they shouldn't be given the grant to do that. It's pretty bad that they charge for the non-working lamps too. When you report a light(s) they won't do anything about it. I think its a little hypocritical
NGrid is the electric company for the state of Rhode Island so they're in charge of the freeway lighting. I was told the new relay lighting systems are installed and maintained by RISE (which stands for something lol). NGrid contracts work out to RISE, which is part of the union. My uncle's friend works for RISE and is part of the installation of LED street lights on I-95 in fromt of the Providence Place Mall.
Most electric companies that deal with street lights do this. Since streetlights are unmetered, they precalculate the kWh usage of the lights and charge an annual rental fee (which covers maintenance, cost of the light, etc) and an annual estimated kWh charge. But since they don't take care of these lights, they are pretty much charging the state (so us taxpayers) for the bloody hell of it. The rental fee is a joke since the lights aren't serviced and haven't worked since Y2K and the kWh charge isn't fair either since non-working lights don't use any electricity. I think the issue is more to do with wiring issues like blown fuses since the few lights they fixed earlier this year they didn't change the lamp or PC (so most of the ones they reconnected were dayburners and sometimes cyclers too...)
I've been increasingly getting on their case about the condition of the freeway lights though since they've barely serviced any freeway lights in the time they've been here (over 15 years).
UPDATE: these overhear signs are now gone. The overpass in the background and the on/off ramps that go straight are gone. The highway simply curves to the right now.
[url= when i went by, these three tapered elliptical poles were the ones removed, all on the same crane truck. [/url] The other lights were still up but I'd imagine they were removed or will be shortly.
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It's a real shame that NGrid pretty much neglects the freeway lighting here that they're in charge of. They've been starting to fix up a lot of lights but they've sometimes been inconsistant. The fixed a string of light behind this pic on Rte 10 and every single light worked GREAT for like a month and now none work. I don't know if it's a blown fuse or what but I think the 1960s wiring isn't holding up too well anymore...
But when thy finally do get around to fixing the lights you can tell because practically all the lights are shiney and new because they don't replace starting aids which all pretty much fail after a couple years of a cycling lamp.
What bugs me the most is that the taxpayers of RI PAY for these lights (the standard rental fee and estimated kWh charge) whether these lights work or not. I'm 15 and 5 months and i can vaguely ever remember one or two of these lights ever working. I reported a lot of freeway lights. the told me i needed to report individual poles so I went on Google Streetview and got all 150 pole numbers of freeway lights througout RI that I know are out and reported them all lol. Then they told me that the maintenance department requested them to not process any more reports for freeway lights, as they're aware of the issue. Well that's all fien and dandy that they know about it but when are the doing to DO something about it?
Most electric companies that deal with street lights do this. Since streetlights are unmetered, they precalculate the kWh usage of the lights and charge an annual rental fee (which covers maintenance, cost of the light, etc) and an annual estimated kWh charge. But since they don't take care of these lights, they are pretty much charging the state (so us taxpayers) for the bloody hell of it. The rental fee is a joke since the lights aren't serviced and haven't worked since Y2K and the kWh charge isn't fair either since non-working lights don't use any electricity. I think the issue is more to do with wiring issues like blown fuses since the few lights they fixed earlier this year they didn't change the lamp or PC (so most of the ones they reconnected were dayburners and sometimes cyclers too...)
I've been increasingly getting on their case about the condition of the freeway lights though since they've barely serviced any freeway lights in the time they've been here (over 15 years).
[url= when i went by, these three tapered elliptical poles were the ones removed, all on the same crane truck. [/url] The other lights were still up but I'd imagine they were removed or will be shortly.