Typical FDOT lighting. High rise aluminum truss arms. All FDOT lighting are on relay circuits. Systems installed in the 90s and earlier used drop lens, newer systems use FCO. FDOT began using HPS early, circa 1970. In Orlando I saw two rare HPS GE M-400s on similar truss arms and same pole height, mixed in with ITT 25s without NEMA tags.
Ah here's the freeway pic lol. Yeah I saw really interesting 70s and 80s HPS lights on the West Belt of Interstate 295. OV-25 Tudors and M-400A FCOs among the mix.
Yup and FDOT is crazy with lighting, they have LOTS of it! Many of the interchanges in rural areas have high masts. In the Miami area, there are 5 lane freeways with cobrahead lighting in the median. Cobraheads can't effectively light 5 lane freeways.
Yeah I actually love highmast lighting. I wish RIDOT would use them. The only RIDOT highmasts left now are the ones in Coventry near the Cracker Barrel and WalMart Supercenter (Exit 7). They're 1000W MH. They're slated for removal from what I heard. The 400W HPS ones in front of the Providence Place Mall are all gone now except for a couple that haven't gotten in the way of the construction yet. They're installing these terrible Mongoose lights (made by Holophane) that are basically a cross between a cobrahead and a shoebox. The thing is, the lights have mo mast arm and mount to the tops of the poles and are trying to light four or five lanes of traffic and they can't do it. It's pathetic. When RIDOT redid the Interstate 195/95 interchange, the used M-400 FCOs on tall davits along the shoulders and in the jersey barrier. That area is pretty well-lit but spotty. Most of I-95 from Roger Williams Park and National Grid (Exit 17) to Exit 25 is lit with the original short davits, alternating shoulder, median, shoulder, median. Pretty smooth lighting pattern at night. I find the 250W HPS drop lens lights just as effective as the 400W FCO lights but the former have a smoother light pattern.
On Interstate 295, they did a relighting project at the Rte 6 interchange (actually, they replaced the lights on I-295 at Exits 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7) with M-400 FCOs on tall davits. The Rte 6 interchange was 1000W MH highmasts, which were rather poorly maintained. However, they fixed all the lights about a year before they removed them and it was beautiful. Like being under moonlight. Nice and evenly lit. Then they took 'em down and installed a couple hundred M-400 FCOs, which are spotty. Not to mention they have a lot more fixtures to maintain now too! And knockdowns too. They have had knockdowns with the highmasts! They had yellow sand barrels around the poles in the median so if a car struck them it would protect the car and light pole. RIDOT installs the poles so close to the edge of the freeway and the freeways here have very small shoulders so it's easy for poles to get struck. If they set the poles back a couple more feet they'd probably have less pole fatalities (of course RIDOT will sometimes reuse a pole no matter how mangled up it is lol). Aluminum makes sense when the poles are not break-away and are protected from being hit, since it will virtually last forever. But when used openly with no guardrail, I think steel is a better option since steel probably withstands impacts better. The aluminum poles here usually get pretty destroyed by vehicles here since the pole gets hit and then the vehicle runs it over afterwards lol.
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On Interstate 295, they did a relighting project at the Rte 6 interchange (actually, they replaced the lights on I-295 at Exits 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7) with M-400 FCOs on tall davits. The Rte 6 interchange was 1000W MH highmasts, which were rather poorly maintained. However, they fixed all the lights about a year before they removed them and it was beautiful. Like being under moonlight. Nice and evenly lit. Then they took 'em down and installed a couple hundred M-400 FCOs, which are spotty. Not to mention they have a lot more fixtures to maintain now too! And knockdowns too. They have had knockdowns with the highmasts! They had yellow sand barrels around the poles in the median so if a car struck them it would protect the car and light pole. RIDOT installs the poles so close to the edge of the freeway and the freeways here have very small shoulders so it's easy for poles to get struck. If they set the poles back a couple more feet they'd probably have less pole fatalities (of course RIDOT will sometimes reuse a pole no matter how mangled up it is lol). Aluminum makes sense when the poles are not break-away and are protected from being hit, since it will virtually last forever. But when used openly with no guardrail, I think steel is a better option since steel probably withstands impacts better. The aluminum poles here usually get pretty destroyed by vehicles here since the pole gets hit and then the vehicle runs it over afterwards lol.