In Hampshire, the PFI has started to use Mini Lumas in some rural areas and also for areas that fall within National Parks.

Some examples newly installed in the small village of Thruxton west of Andover.

Example on Fabrikat column.



Close up.



Pole mounted example - not enlarger sleeve inside spigot.

In Southampton, they appear to be having supply issues or sloppy workmanship issues with main road columns. A couple of weeks ago, two Hampshire green columns appeared in Portsmouth Road during replacement works. More recently, Cumberland Place in the city centre has been relit, and most of the new columns on the north side of the road are Hampshire green!

In the Southampton area, there really isn't a huge amount left to be done. I've tried to crudely map out roads where lighting replacements haven't yet taken place. The mapping isn't definitive, as there are odds and sods which I haven't mapped, plus there may be the odd road I have missed, but as can be seen, it won't be long before all is lost.

In January, works will resume/start on at least five roads shown.

Based on information from roadworks.org, below are some of the current and programmed replacement schemes. There are other main roads which have not yet had replacements which do not appear to have been programmed. There is a significant proportion of remaining SOX in the list below.

In progress:
A27 Station Roundabout, Fareham
A27/A3024 Windhover Roundabout
A35 Main Road/Totton Bypass, Totton
Hamble Lane
Bargate Street, Southampton
French Street, Southampton

Starting 12th January:
A27 Southampton Road (part)
A27 Eastern Way, Fareham
A27 Western Way, Fareham
A35 Redbridge Causeway
A3024 Bursledon Road, Southampton
East Street/Titchfield Hill, Titchfield
Parkway, Whiteley
Whiteley Way, Whiteley

Starting late January/early February:
A32 Gosport Road, Fareham
A33 Mayflower Roundabout, Southampton
A33 Redbridge Roundabout, Southampton
A3024 Maybray King Way, Southampton
Glen Eyre Road, Southampton

Starting in March:
M27 J11 roundabout

Starting in April:
A33 Mountbatten Way, Southampton

Well, works are partially complete at the A27 Station roundabout at Fareham, new columns are in and working outside the fire station.

This double bracket with the last Hyperion on in the town was still standing early this morning but with the service disconnected. Picture is from 2008.



In Newgate Lane the new 10m columns - probably with 150W SON Iridiums were definitely dimmed between Palmerston Drive and Longfield Avenue. The next section to HMS Collingwood appeared brighter but I'm not convinced they were at full power. The road surface may have appeared brighter due to column spacing

Nearby, this remote geared MA50 was running a 90W SOX lamp - not the first time that smaller wattage lamps have been used to maintain lighting prior to replacement as lamp stocks become exhausted. The SOX lighting in this location is all due for imminent replacement.

https://goo.gl/maps/IyRji

This roundabout on the A264 was being relit about three/four weeks back which was perfect timing for me to be in the area!

I managed to save this Sapphire but it's damaged. However the next column along also had a Sapphire but aluminum canopy and electronic gear! Both being the south coast spec (deep bowled).

Further work has been carried out in the small town of Stockbridge in Hants.

The Victorian heritage SON lanterns in the High St have all been replaced with CDM versions, so its now white light. Interestingly these have all been retrofits on the existing columns including a vintage cast iron example. Where the old lanterns were wall mounted, most have been retrofits on the old brackets but there are a couple of new heritage brackets replacing old ones in the same place. Several cast metal AC Ford control boxes still hold the DNO supply fuses for these brackets!

This GEC Nightwatch has been replaced by a Libra on a new bracket.

The Leckford Lane roundabout on the A30 has now lost its 1970s columns some replaced with fibreglass passively safe columns but to a different design to those used in Basingstoke for example. One of them seems to have been rolled in the mud before it was put up. Another case of poor attention to detail. The A30 link to the High St roundabout also has new columns, although as I mentioned in an earlier post, some new columns had been installed a couple of years previously.

There are now a ridiculous number of 10m columns along this stretch, the spacing could easily be doubled between columns. This is a lightly trafficked rural location and even allowing for dimming of the Iridiums, it doesn't need as many columns.

Elsewhere in the town, on the "Old London Rd"  bypassed by the A30 mentioned in the paragraph above,  Urbis ZX1s on hockey stick columns still survive for a while longer - oh how it used to be..

The once staple diet of main road concretes with 90W SOX in Southampton is now critically endangered. When I say critically endangered, there is only one left, and the proposed start date for replacements in the street are just over a week away. By the time this last main road relic is replaced, it is quite possible that the last of the other main road concretes in Southampton except Cobden Bridge will have gone, as replacements are progressing well in Bursledon Road.

For the record, just over a week ago the "Whiteley Special" GEC ZD8305 "SON Bricks" became extinct, and there are a few lantern types becoming extinct at the moment as the crews purge the main roads of their old lighting stock. The focus certainly seems to be main roads, as side road replacements have been left and forgotten for time being.

Only a week ago I said...



Well not any more, new 5m columns with Libras have replaced the 5m hockey sticks with the ZX1s. The former are in service, the latter have yet to be removed. Begs the question of why lantern swaps weren't carried out rather than new columns.

As the last few months of the bulk replacement program near, in Hampshire the PFI is mopping up the last odds and ends (although there are going to be some omissions), the situation in West Sussex (as already noted before) is much further behind.

In Billingshurst, the stylish tapered steel columns on the A29 bypass dating from 1999 (so not old enough to be replaced) still have their SGS204s and haven't been lantern swapped.

In Pulborough, although new PFI columns exist at the A283/A29 roundabouts in the centre of town, less than 0.5 a mile away the typical West Sussex sleeved concretes still survive.

Nearby, and even older, a GEC Z8896 on a pole mount also still exists.

In Horsham and Crawley on the A264, its a similar story, hundreds of main road columns - many concrete - still need to be replaced.