A broken street lamp in Evans Bay. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
A broken street lamp in Evans Bay. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
The Wellington City Council has urgently widened its investigation into a bad batch of street lamps which have resulted in some 15kg lights crashing to the ground, with the potential to cause serious injury or death.
It has now emerged that fittings on about 1000 of the city’s 17,000 street lamps are faulty. This is after the council earlier said the issue was affecting only a “handful” of lamps.
Former city councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman told NZME that, over the past few weeks, he had noticed several missing lamps, which he told the council about, but when he looked closer, he saw the posts had wires hanging out of them and jagged metal.
“Then yesterday I noticed a heavy street lantern on the ground.”
The jagged end of a lamp post after the streetlight fell off. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He picked the lamp up and was stunned to find it weighed about 15kg, and was a metre long.
“The chance of you being under it is pretty slim - they’re not falling like the morning dew - but if one hits you on the head you’d be stone dead, that’s it. They’re six metres up, it would kill you outright.”
He said he counted six missing lamps between Greta Point and Point Jerningham - and has urged the council to do something about it.
The piece of concrete which fell from a Mapuia lamppost. Photo / Supplied
This afternoon council transport and infrastructure manager Brad Singh said the failure of the fittings was clearly an unacceptable danger to the public.
Council staff were working hard to identify street lamp fixtures where the fittings needed to be replaced, he said.
“We’re really sorry that this is happening – we don’t want people worrying about what’s above their heads when they’re out walking or driving – so we’re focusing on this issue as a matter of urgency.”
Members of the public should call 04 499 4444 if they spot any street lamps which are drooping or swaying, especially in strong winds.
Singh said the issue dates back to 2017 when the council installed 17,000 new LED street lamps around the city.
“These spigots are now failing prematurely causing the lamp head to come loose and hang.”
The council is working with the four companies that installed the LED lamps to identify the faults, Singh said.
In the meantime, council contractors will check the connections every time they go up a pole, regardless of what they are there for. Anything from a faulty batch will be replaced immediately.
A Mapuia local, told the Herald she had noticed a large chunk of concrete in the grass while mowing her lawn - and when she looked up, she realised the streetlamp was crumbling.
She said the post was cracked and rusted and although the lamp is still attached to the post, the pole had “big chunks of concrete missing”.
“The steel is exposed and rusted and it’s got big cracks in the top. It’s not a really busy street but the kids ride their bikes up and down, and if [the lamp] fell from 15 feet, what do you think is going to happen?”
