I thought these were retrofitted to 400W HPS but I've never see them lit so i don't know. They were probably once MV but i think these were retrofitted. If you took I-93 through Boston instead of I-95 or I-495 i feel bad for you. The traffic is terrible. I-95 has all M-400A2s and highmasts but over half don't work.
If these were installed in the 80s then they probably are 1000W HPS since i think MassDOT went HPS early on.
We has 1kW merc B2213s in some older 60s freeways until '93 or so when they were replaced with HPS Cooper OV 25s, of course those lights are now high mast.
MTO started installing HPS in the late 70s and believe Toronto had some streets with HPS as early as 1968ish.
There still are incandescent lights in Jamestown. The reason for it is because when electric street lighting was new, the utility had promised something like $5 per light as the yearly fee and it's been grandfathered in. NGrid finds it cheaper to just continue to service the incandescents rather loose money charging the town that small fee for HPS lights that they usually charge nearly $50/year. There are a few number of mercs there too.
Oh wow as far as I know there's only one incandescent streetlight left here. I wonder how long they will continue servicing those, until the lamps are banned/discontinued?
Mike I think they may still service even the 400w mercs once in a while. I saw a merc ITT 25 on a private property on US 44 in the Smithfield area, very bright! BTW there are a few new AEL 327s here on I-93 they have yellow tags. They must be 1000w, tho they made these fixtures in wattages as low as 310w. The traffic was luckily a little mild. There was backup but it didn't last long. It sure felt like driving in LA!
a cloud in back of the pickup truck eh? I always crop it so the license plate is never seen or I aim camera higher...
Nice find! We don't have many large cobraheads in state of MD except for Baltiomre-Washington Parkway in the very south just a mile from Washington DC we have AE 327s there with "75" NEMA tags which means 750 watt HPS!
Dave; yeah some of the mercs still are very bright but after 2007-2010 (i'm a little sketchy on exactly when) they stopped relamping all mercs except for 100 watters so when the lamps die or the PC becomes a dayburner, the light is replaced. There are those few exceptions when a lineman just fixes a dayburner instead of replacing the whole unit. I'm pretty sure the company rule is to remove any merc (except 100 watters and those in Jamestown) upon service though.
I believe Newport had the same deal as Jamestown about the flat rate fee, but with mercs but NGrid seemed to have overruled it since around 2007-2010 the rest of the clamshells (basically all OV-20s, both cast and stamped) were removed on Rte 118 (freeway) and on the roads. You can tell where a clamshell used to be becuase there're shiney M-250R2s on some of the poles.
The ballast cans are removed though since NGrid classifies MV lamps and paint can ballasts as hazardous waste. (mercury and PCBs) Ironically HPS lamps aren't considered HW by NGrid, sure they don't have as much mercury but they do have some... The Newport Bridge also has some old probe start MH OVYs on the bridge but they're removed upon service as well it seems. Only the ones right above beams and others that are hidden remain. There are a couple that have mercs in them that are still up too though.
I wonder if they classify newer mercury ballasts or older HPS ballasts w/ PCBs in the cap as HW. Also I wonder why they didn't consider HPS lamps as HW and what about MH?
I'm not sure if my utility would still service a merc since we have next to no mercs left, I would be surprised if they still kept merc lamps on the truck. Still I wonder who keeps these serviced...
The capacitors were removed from older lights that had them, but only if the fixture was being removed. Joe didn't mention MH lamps. I'd assume they would be but the only MH lights that NGrid maintains- err... has in there system- are the ones on the Newport Bridge from my knowledge. They were installed in i think the 90s when the bridge got a facelift. One of Narragansett Electric's last major installations before the Grid took over. Only missouts and ones with mercs in them are left.
Ugh, well then the 100w mercs will soon no longer be serviced, then next it will be all LED. I don't think I'd bother going to Newport, only to Jamestown.
Do wanna pay the toll eh? I've only been to Newport a couple of times. They hit you twice for the toll. Once going into and once leaving Newport. Jamestown is right before the Newport Bridge (well in technicall terms it's the "Claiborne Pell Memorial Bridge" but I've never heard anyone call it anything but the Newport Bridge lol.) There are not many lights in Jamestown period but the few are mostly incandescent with a few mercs. I saw a MV 60s M-250R and a modern looking 100W MV M-250R2.
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If these were installed in the 80s then they probably are 1000W HPS since i think MassDOT went HPS early on.
MTO started installing HPS in the late 70s and believe Toronto had some streets with HPS as early as 1968ish.
Nice find! We don't have many large cobraheads in state of MD except for Baltiomre-Washington Parkway in the very south just a mile from Washington DC we have AE 327s there with "75" NEMA tags which means 750 watt HPS!
I believe Newport had the same deal as Jamestown about the flat rate fee, but with mercs but NGrid seemed to have overruled it since around 2007-2010 the rest of the clamshells (basically all OV-20s, both cast and stamped) were removed on Rte 118 (freeway) and on the roads. You can tell where a clamshell used to be becuase there're shiney M-250R2s on some of the poles.
The ballast cans are removed though since NGrid classifies MV lamps and paint can ballasts as hazardous waste. (mercury and PCBs) Ironically HPS lamps aren't considered HW by NGrid, sure they don't have as much mercury but they do have some... The Newport Bridge also has some old probe start MH OVYs on the bridge but they're removed upon service as well it seems. Only the ones right above beams and others that are hidden remain. There are a couple that have mercs in them that are still up too though.
I'm not sure if my utility would still service a merc since we have next to no mercs left, I would be surprised if they still kept merc lamps on the truck. Still I wonder who keeps these serviced...