This is a picture of a wooden lamppost on a freeway ramp, from northbound 605 to eastbound San Bernardino Freeway. Wood lampposts are rare on urban freeways.
These poles appear to be temporary. Once the construction is done, metal light poles will probably be put up. If this set up is permanent, it sure is tacky.
I've seen wooden poles used in highways permanently! Garden State Parkway was one of them....in New Jersey.....there are other parts of NJ that has them....also there's some in New York State not fat from Long Island......also there's actually some in Long Island near the beach! I also saw some setups with Curlee A-framers in North Carolina.....
I've seen it too. the end of I-295 in Massachusetts has M-250R2s at the end at a hairpin curve when it merges back with I-95. With the guardrail behind the poles and the jersey barrier in fron of the poles, that extra strip of asphalt almost looks like a sidewalk. Oddly enough, RIDOT made a retired bridge for I-195 into a walkway. It still has the old long truss arms, though they hold M-250R2 in various conditions. The M-250R2s aren't used, and there's no way to get a bucket truck there to service them. they're still connected to power as well, though only one works and it cycles.
I don't think the MTO has permanent lights on wood poles since we mostly use highmast light, that and MTO seems to be quite thorough in removing old stuff.
There's a permanent light on a wooden pole at a merge point on I-5 north of Bakersfield, CA. Also there's another one at an exit on southbound US 101 in Los Alamos, CA which is owned by PG&E.
So sometimes it's permanent!