Car Accident on I-95 Takes out a M-400R2 Davit pole
Bad accident on I-95 near Exit 15 (Jefferson Blvd.) that backed up traffic for miles a year or two ago. Took out a double davit with a pair of M-400R2s in the process...
Here's the pole that got knocked down. RIDOT is actually good at maintaining their lights. It's NGrid that's terrible. RIDOt plans to replace all of the remaining NGrid light installations so they can have relay-controlled units that are metered. That way they get billed for actual energy usage and not a fixed rate for estimated energy usage for lights that haven't been serviced once since NGrid took over in the late 90s. It wasn't until recently that NGrid has "brought back some of their lights from the dead" as I call it lol.
Also, RIDOT want's to have relay controlled lights so that they can have a light curfew. Only I-95 and other metropolitain freeways won't have the lighting curfew, and those lights are already RIDOT-owned anyway. A number of RIDOT owned lights have PCs but RIDOT seems to every-so-slowly be retrofitting them to relays. RIDOT-owned PC-controlled lights are still metered though so it's very easy to retrofit to a relay, whereas NGrid owned lights are just connected directly to nearby wood pole power lines (often you'll see a pair of transformers at an interchange and the load wires of the transformer run down the side of the pole underground to the metal pole lights. So retrofitting NGrid lights to relays would be tricky and RIDOT would have to purchase the ownership rights of the lights and NGrid would have to install a meter for them and since the NGrid lighting systems have aging wiring from the 60s and 70s and the systems are so poorly maintained, it's just better to replace the lights with new systems. On the flip-side, there eventually won't be any HAPCO aluminum trusses left on the freeways. RIDOT is all davits. NGrid uses tapered ellipticals and trusses (the former for suburban developments, downtown roads, and freeways and the trusses are only used for urban roads and freeways.)
NGrid-owned lights are all 120V (the mercs were probably 240V but when they retrofitted to HPS they probably decided to use 120V, as the PCs are all 120V and only two wires go to the lights (I've seen knockdowns where the wires are still connected and go up the pole). Apparently new relay lights are 120V too, which is odd. I figured they'd use a higher voltage. RIDOT uses all 120-277V PCs so i assumed they'd use 120v PCs if the lights were 120V. NGrid only uses 120V PCs (though they do carry some 120-277V blue PCs if a light happens to require one, which they're very rare here if any, though I've seen 120V lights here get blue PCs by NGrid).
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Also, RIDOT want's to have relay controlled lights so that they can have a light curfew. Only I-95 and other metropolitain freeways won't have the lighting curfew, and those lights are already RIDOT-owned anyway. A number of RIDOT owned lights have PCs but RIDOT seems to every-so-slowly be retrofitting them to relays. RIDOT-owned PC-controlled lights are still metered though so it's very easy to retrofit to a relay, whereas NGrid owned lights are just connected directly to nearby wood pole power lines (often you'll see a pair of transformers at an interchange and the load wires of the transformer run down the side of the pole underground to the metal pole lights. So retrofitting NGrid lights to relays would be tricky and RIDOT would have to purchase the ownership rights of the lights and NGrid would have to install a meter for them and since the NGrid lighting systems have aging wiring from the 60s and 70s and the systems are so poorly maintained, it's just better to replace the lights with new systems. On the flip-side, there eventually won't be any HAPCO aluminum trusses left on the freeways.
NGrid-owned lights are all 120V (the mercs were probably 240V but when they retrofitted to HPS they probably decided to use 120V, as the PCs are all 120V and only two wires go to the lights (I've seen knockdowns where the wires are still connected and go up the pole). Apparently new relay lights are 120V too, which is odd. I figured they'd use a higher voltage. RIDOT uses all 120-277V PCs so i assumed they'd use 120v PCs if the lights were 120V. NGrid only uses 120V PCs (though they do carry some 120-277V blue PCs if a light happens to require one, which they're very rare here if any, though I've seen 120V lights here get blue PCs by NGrid).