Huge developments in my area!
As David alluded to in his post of October this year, all main road SOX lighting is being replaced now by LED, in my area of Essex, Castle Point to be exact. However, the rate at which replacements are happening is quite alarming. Whether the aim is to get as many lanterns replaced as possible by Christmas or not I don’t know, but I’ve never known streetlight crews in this area work so quickly.
The first lanterns of this wave went in on Monday or Tuesday I believe, and I reckon by now there has easily been over 120 lanterns replaced. Sadly, this has meant the end for some Alpha 9s, GR150s, MA50s, masses of MA90s, a single Z9554 and a handful of SON lanterns including some SGS203s and Iridiums and P567s that are only a year old in a couple of cases.
It has come as quite a shock seeing these lanterns that have been in place for my whole life so far bite the dust so quickly, and at around 13:30 today, also a slight element of sadness as four of the five MA90s visible from my bedroom window in the next street were removed from service. The fifth remains, I’m not sure if the crews stopped there for the day or if they couldn’t access it for whatever reason but either way, the view from my window is now different after having been the same all my life.Phase 3 of Essex County Council’s LED roll-out, which will eliminate all ≥55W SOX lanterns and ≥100W SON lanterns with LED, has hit Clacton-on-Sea in the north east corner of Essex. After what seemed like a bit of a hiatus in this corner of Essex - some smaller towns and villages like Ardleigh, Dovercourt, Frinton-on-Sea, Manningtree and Thorpe-le-Soken saw the
ASD Highway Diamond Elite arrive in the winter of 2017 / 2018, LED replacements have only just started in this area’s biggest population centre of Clacton-on-Sea and Holland-on-Sea. The roll-out is motoring ahead once again at a frightening pace.
The lantern currently being installed in Clacton-on-sea and nearby Jaywick and Holland-on-Sea is the Philips DigiStreet. This photograph was taken last Sunday (10th February 2019).
In the Clacton-on-Sea / Holland-on-Sea conurbation, this lantern is being installed on columns as low as 5 metres (on bus routes) and up to 10 metres on main roads, noting that there are only two roads in the Clacton-on-Sea / Holland-on-Sea conurbation with street lighting at 10 metres (Valley Road in Clacton-on-Sea and King’s Parade in Holland-on-Sea). The mounting height in Constable Avenue in the photograph above is 6m. This photograph was also taken last Sunday.
The longest straight SOX-lit road yet to be spoilt by the arrival of LED is King's Parade, which runs along the sea front of Holland-on-Sea. The above photograph was taken from the Clacton end of Holland-on-Sea. Once again there are enough lights out to suggest that LED could be arriving here soon.
As of January 2018, LED casual replacements have started to arrive, although it is still vastly outnumbered by the quantity of SOX lanterns. One Philips Luma arrived on King's Parade in January 2018 and another arrived around a month ago. This photograph showing the first arrival of LED on King's Parade was taken in January 2018.
The same view in daytime, photographed in February 2018.
This view, of circa. 50 SOX street lights with perhaps two or three SON casual replacements and two LED casual replacements was unchanged until Sunday night (10th February 2019), but by the end of Tuesday 12th February 2019, all but five SOX lanterns remained. Here is the same view taken on Tuesday this week:
King’s Parade, Holland on Sea, as photographed on Tuesday 12th February 2019.
The view from the Holland Haven of King’s Parade taken on the same day.
A tighter crop taken from the above photograph. You’ll notice a street lighting crew in an unbranded cherry picker busy at work.
By dusk, only four SOX lanterns remained to be changed to LED at the northern end of King’s Parade.
This is how the same road looked two days earlier (Sunday 10th February 2019):
Kings's Parade in Holland-on-Sea, as photographed from the other end (the Holland Haven end).
King’s Parade, Holland-on-Sea, as photographed from the Clacton end on the evening of Tuesday 12th February 2019. Just one SOX lantern remains to be changed over to LED.
Clacton used to have an extensive installation of both top-entry and side-entry GEC Z8430CMs throughout the town centre and stretching along the sea front from Butlins to the west to Holland-on-Sea to the east. This D. Constance Ltd. postcard posted in August 1970 shows King's Parade, which runs the length of the sea front at Holland-on-Sea. Top-entry GEC Z8430CMs are shown installed on distinctively green Concrete Utilities Avenue 3DNN concrete columns.
The introduction of LED to King’s Parade returns the road to white light for the first time since the 1970s.
The ferocious speed of the replacements in Clacton-on-Sea mirrors the urgency that A13 James noted when Phase 3 of the LED roll-out took place in Castle Point in the south of the county in circa. December 2017 with Rochford and Basildon quickly following on. This turn of pace may be aided by a decision not to cut the brackets arms back to the stubs which was a feature of phase 2 of the LED roll-out.
The apparent hiatus in Phase 3 of the LED roll-out may have been the crews working elsewhere in the county, or perhaps may have been caused by the
performance of two LED lanterns being installed in Essex being the subject of a Highways England warning in March 2018. The Urbis-Schreder Ampera was used in Phase One of the roll-out and the Philips Luma was used in phase 2 of the roll-out. I recall phase 3 of the roll-out began with the Philips Luma but now uses the Philips DigiStreet (as used in Kings Parade in Holland-on-Sea above) and the ASD Highway Diamond Elite, as used in nearby Ardleigh, Frinton-on-Sea and Weeley.
In Clacton alone, Phase 3 of the LED roll-out will see the loss of scores of Eleco GR100s, GEC Z9454s, GEC Z8600s, Philips MA50s and Thorn Alpha Nines, the loss of numerous Philips SGS203s and Philips MA90s and the loss of a few GEC Z9554s and Philips Iridiums. Also going will be Clacton’s last Atlas Alpha One. This Atlas Alpha One in Jaywick Lane outlived its later replacement the Thorn Alpha One which was also popular in Clacton.
This Atlas Alpha One on Jaywick Lane is the last remaining Alpha One and unsleeved Concrete Utilities Avenue 3DNN combination. This photograph was taken on Tuesday this week (12th February 2019) in the certain knowledge it only has a few days left in service.
My Dad was a teenager when the main roads in Clacton were being relit with this column and lantern combination. Today he celebrates his 75th birthday! If I had my way, this street light would be listed as were the street lights along the sea front footpath (listings
here and
here, although it should be noted that
the listing didn’t help these street lights out when needed the most).This visually pleasing combination of column and lantern ruled most of Clacton’s main roads from the 1960s to the 1980s with only the roads in and around the town centre and the road along the sea front utilising a different lantern. Avenue 3DNNs were also used for the roads in and around the town centre but they held the mercury-running GEC Z8430CM. In the 1970s energy crisis, the Z8430CMs lighting the town centre roads were converted to SON and the Z8430CMs lighting the roads around the town centre and most of the sea front road were replaced with ELECO GR100s, ELECO GR110s, GEC Z9455s and Thorn Alpha Nines.
The only main road in Clacton not to have Avenue 3DNNs was Valley Road which had Thorn Alpha Fives on Concrete Utilities Highway “X” 35 columns with steel brackets.
Atlas Alpha Ones and their Thorn Alpha One successors were still being installed in Jaywick, Clacton and Holland-on-Sea as a casual replacements until the late 1980s.
A close-up of the Atlas Alpha One on Jaywick Lane, as photographed on Tuesday this week (12th February 2019).
The “ATLAS OPTICELL” inscription confirms its origin, although this photograph also confirms that it is the later version of the Atlas Alpha One with the toggle fastener on the underside of the shoe instead of the Tufnell screw. Clacton’s last early-version Atlas Alpha One with the Tufnell screw was removed from service in 2010 after it lost its opticell.
Although it is terrible to witness the demise of large-wattage SOX in the town, there is currently no wholesale replacement of street lighting on side roads. These are generally 80 and 125W MBF/U, 35W SOX and 50 and 70W SON in Clacton-on-Sea and the surrounding areas including St. Osyth, Jaywick, Holland-on-Sea, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, and generally 35W SOX and 50 and 70W SON elsewhere in Essex, noting that there could be pockets of mercury elsewhere in Essex that I am unaware of. Having said that, I understand that there is much-reduced or even no re-lamping of side road lanterns. Instead, new LED lanterns are being fitted to side road columns with expired bulbs.
The junction of Valley Road and Mountview Gardens in Clacton-on-Sea, as photographed on Tuesday night (12th February 2019).
The Philips MA50 on Valley Road (the main road) has just been replaced with a Philips DigiStreet LED lantern, column one on Mountview Gardens with the MA50 will surely suffer the same fate very soon, but the GEC Z5641 will not be touched until the mercury bulb expires, the lantern falls apart from old age or the Concrete Utilities "Utility Major" column is struck by a vehicle.
An ASD “Highway Diamond Elite” on a Concrete Utilities "Utility Major" column that previously held a mercury-running GEC Z5641. Photograph taken in January 2019.
This lantern appears to be a rather versatile unit, with one size apparently suitable for installation at all mounting heights from the historic 15ft (as above) up to 12 metres, although that could be an optical illusion
(the lantern is available in four sizes).I drove along the A127 from the M25 to Rayleigh on my way home from work last night (25th February 2017), and if the lighting crews started work on February 9th,
as this statement from Essex County Council suggests, then they have motored along, with circa. 13 of the 14 miles between the M25 and Rayleigh now converted to LED … One onimous thing to note from the Essex County Council statement is this sentence about half way down the page:
"As part of the programme, many streetlights requiring repair are being upgraded to LEDs to reduce maintenance costs." If Essex County Council have stopped repairing their existing lighting stock in favour of swapping out any lanterns requiring a visit with an LED lantern, then that could hasten the demise of SOX far quicker than expected. In fact there appears to be circumstantial evidence emerging (based just from my own observations in the last couple of months) that Essex County Council may have ceased purchasing new SOX lamps (and possibly MBF lamps), and are electing to replace the whole lantern with an LED lantern instead of fitting a new bulb.
In Clacton for example, the number of street lights that are out at the moment seems a little higher than usual. This may simply be due to it being winter, meaning more time is spent travelling around and observing the town at night. But this winter I cannot recall seeing a street light that had previously been out of light being relamped (and brought back into light) for about three months.
In November 2016, the INDO Air 1 or Air 1+ side road LED lantern made its debut in Clacton, and this month (February 2017) has seen main road LED street lighting appear in Clacton for the first time.
With reference to the number of street lights that are out seeming little higher than usual, this continues to be the case in and around Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea. The policy of replacing many street lights with expired bulbs with new LED street lights only may have caused issues with stock, especially considering the difficulties suffered by the Urbis-Schreder Ampera, the Philips Luma and the Philips LED Iridium which may have driven many local authorities to alternative products and alternative suppliers.
The increase in lanterns out of light has recently become a news item
in Colchester and
in Clacton-on-Sea.Although new LED lanterns are now routinely appearing where the bulb in the old lantern has expired, I have noticed a few exceptions.
This bowlless ELECO GR501 in Great Clacton, as photographed in December 2018, has recently been out of light.
Imagine my surprise when I saw “12.18” written on the cap of the new bulb!