A Seattle City Light (SCL) truck has been moving from fixture to fixture along E Union Street for the last few workdays. I stopped to say Thanks! and learned that they’re changing light bulbs, checking voltage and wiring. One worker said that if a light is still dark or strobing after these maintenance checks, we should report it to SCL (with pole number and nearest address) as the entire fixture needs to be changed. I’m delighted to see this as it’s taken so long lately to get reported lights out checked and fixed. Better lighting is a Good Thing.
I heard they’re changing all of the streetlights to LED – is that not what that crew was doing?
City Light has fallen far behind on streetlight maintenance lately; they’ve been understaffed, and lately there’s been a hiring freeze due to budget issues. Glad to see them getting caught up, finally.
I can’t wait for the hiring freeze to be lifted, because I’ve been trying to get into an apprenticeship program at City Light.
This is part of the citywide relamping project, not the LED project. The LED project will take several years to accomplish. This is just an attempt to get the existing backlog cleared up.
Good luck on the apprenticeship, Lack Thereof. It’s a great program, and hopefully will come back from hiatus soon. but with all the layoffs and the citywide furloughs coming, who knows what is going to happen.
Why would they spend a bunch of money doing maintenance work on existing lights if they are destined to be replaced by the LED lamps? Wouldn’t it be more prudent to just replace anything that might need a repair?
As I said before, the LED conversion will take several years to complete. In the meantime, the existing lights are suffering from a backlog. It’s more efficient to inspect all of them rather than trying to attack it piecemeal.
With the impending drastic cuts in city services, be thankful this is happening when it is.
Those flat lamps are a big improvement in focusing light not into the sky and other unneeded places.
LED is an energy savings, but I think it’s been difficult for people to deal with. I think the color and, because cheap, they amp it up way more than necessary.
Generally street lights are too bright IMO. Not so bright and where needed is better.
Maybe City Light friend could clarify. I’m just guessing based on some reading I’ve been doing about light pollution issues…