Work continues apace on the LED conversions in Colchester, which form part of
Essex County Council's LED trial. Colchester has the lion's share of the lanterns being installed - 920 in total, and if it wasn't for those pesky top-entry lanterns and old concretes, I think the contractors would be close to completing the project by now.
Balkerne Hill (one of two dual carriageways around the town centre that isn't part-night switched) was converted last week. This photograph is from April 2015 and the new lanterns are Urbis Ampera Maxis.
A night view of the recently completed LED conversion. This photograph is also from April 2015.
A close-up view of the old lanterns from December 2014. The road was built in 1976, and although some of the original Petit Jean columns remain, the original GEC turtles have withered away over the years.
Note also the inconsistent mounting heights, with the original columns still standing tall at 12 metres, but a number of the replacement columns coming up short at 10m.
The same view at night in December 2014.
And the equivalent view today (April 2015), with lantern uniformity regained for the first time since the 1970s, but the issue of inconsistent column heights not addressed.
Ironically, the contractors had the perfect opportunity to fix the inconsistent column heights, as every bracket has just been renewed (as was done on Southway -
see earlier post). Combining brackets of no height gain on 10m columns and brackets of 2 metre height gain on 8m columns would have created a 10m mounting height along the entire length of the carriageway!
The Middleborough roundabout at the bottom of Balkerne Hill has also been converted to LED. This photograph from December 2014 shows one of the three-arm brackets on the roundabout's many traffic islands.
The same column today (April 2015). Once again, the old bracket has disappeared in favour of what looks like a pre-installed and pre-wired new bracket to save on-site installation time.
A close-up view of the new installation. The Ampera Maxi differs from the Ampera Midi in that it has two sets of LED arrays instead of one.
For most of Colchester's LED trial, Ampera Maxis have been installed on columns that have needed new brackets (12m columns, columns between 8 and 12m in difficult locations) and Ampera Midis have been installed on columns that did not require new brackets (10m and 8m columns).
This consistency of installation (Maxis on columns with new brackets, Midis on columns without new brackets) has led to inconsistency on the road, with Ampera Maxis on 8m columns appearing next to Ampera Midis on 10m columns. Hopefully the LED trial will allow for the Maxis to be dimmed down (or one of the arrays switched off) in these locations, in order to balance the lighting levels.
A close-up view of one of the new three-arm installations on the Middleborough roundabout from April 2015.
Attached to the Middleborough roundabout is Middleborough itself. Middleborough used to be the site of Colchester's old cattle market, but the cattle market was moved to the edge of town in 1982 and the area redeveloped into an office complex called The Octagon (on the left of the above picture from December 2014).
The redevelopment of Middleborough was accompanied by blue-painted GEC turtles, many of which have remained to this day...well, almost.
The same view in April 2014. The 33 year old turtles have now gone in favour of Ampera Midis installed on the old brackets.
A night-time version of the above view from December 2014, showing all the turtles in light.
And the same view today (April 2015). White light has returned to Middleborough for the first time since the GEC three-eighty fluorescents were removed in 1982.
The double-bracketed column on the traffic island is still awaiting conversion, alongside some of the other awkwardly-located columns around Middleborough and the Middleborough roundabout.
Another view of Middleborough from December 2014.
The same view today (April 2015).
One of the billboard posters for Essex County Council's new campaign to reduce adult pedestrian road deaths and injuries at night has appeared at the end of my road:
Thankfully, there are some lit routes away from the town centre that pedestrians can use, but St. Peter's Street isn't one of them.
The latest poster to appear at the end of my road (where St. Peter's Street joins Middleborough) is this election poster by the Conservative Party. But can potential voters see the poster at night?
Well, yes they can, but that's not thanks to Conservative-controlled Essex County Council, which still switch off the majority of its street lighting at 1am.