Dylan Brogan
Dozens of street lights around downtown have decorative signs on them that read “Celebrate Madison. Celebrate Fall.” Although it’s a reference to autumn, one of the street lights actually did fall. On Sept. 30, a pole at Wisconsin Avenue and Mifflin Street on the Capitol Square crashed to the ground.
Although no one was injured, the collapse worried city workers who feared other poles might be vulnerable. “That’s the only one that came down but it got us to go look at more of them,” says Brian Smith, traffic engineer for Madison.
Since then, at least a dozen of the street lights have been removed or replaced after being inspected by city workers. Corrosion was discovered on the bases of the 14-foot aluminum poles that could make them unstable.
“It’s a bad type of corrosion that’s causing cracks. When we remove [the poles], we’ve seen pieces of the base just flaking off,” says Smith. “If they aren't safe, we have to take them down. Especially before the big crowd arrives for Halloween.”
Scores of these street lights are located up and down State Street and around the Capitol Square. They have been installed as part of the downtown revitalization projects over the entire length of State Street and the Capitol Square in the past decade. Smith says street lights should be structurally sound for at least 30 years.
“I don’t know if it was bad batch from a particular year or what. It doesn't appear to be an installation problem,” Smith says. “When we sent photos to the manufacturer, they said they have never seen anything like this.”
The city has sent samples of the poles to the Streetcrete Group which manufactures them under the King Luminaire brand. This style of aluminum pole is called The Madison. According to the company’s website, “is so named because this was the design selected by the city of Madison, Wisconsin for their extensive revitalization of State Street...King [Luminaire] was able to provide a design that was both economical and close in appearance to the spun concrete original.”
Smith says it's unclear whether more street lights will be affected by corrosion.
“They’ve been purchased over a number of years. Some of the poles — like the ones on the 700 and 800 blocks of State Street — are brand new. Are those going to be different? Are those going to be good? Or are more going to to end up exhibiting this type of corrosion later on. At this point, I don’t know,” Smith says. “We are going to have to work with the manufacturer and do some checking about this.”
Streetcrete, which is based in Ontario, declined several requests for comment from Isthmus.
For now, the street lights that have been determined to be unsafe have been removed. A few have been replaced with spare poles. Short, metal transformer boxes were placed over the electrical wiring of the other defective lights.
“We don’t have enough spares to cover all the bad ones” says Smith.
Downtown Ald. Mike Verveer is thankful no one was hurt when the Mifflin Street light toppled over.
“It’s a safety issue not only because they could hurt somebody if they fall. Additionally, there will be less light on the sidewalks until we can have replacements lights installed. That could take some time,” says Verveer. “Our electricians are taking this very seriously.”
Verveer says Madison has been a “very good customer” to Streetcrete Group. He hopes that not all of the approximately 150 street lights dotted throughout downtown will have to be replaced.
“I fully expect the manufacturer will take care of this in an expeditious fashion. If not, I will be very disappointed,” says Verveer.
Smith says city staff will continue to monitor the street lights until a final resolution is reached with the manufacturer.
“We do not want one falling down on somebody. I just wish it hadn’t happened.”