Nearly 3 miles of lights are out above I-495, WTOP finds out why – WTOP News

It’s darkish on the market for drivers on Interstate 495. WTOP realized there are 40 lights out between simply two exits. Now, the Maryland State Freeway Administration is answering the query — why aren’t the lights on?

On I-495 East between Connecticut Avenue and the following exit at Silver Spring, there are 40 lights out over the freeway. Final week, three streetlights in that 2.7 mile stretch have been illuminated and three have been flashing.

WTOP reached out to the Maryland State Freeway Administration, which maintains the lights, to see why there was such an outage. As quickly as WTOP reached out, a couple of got here again on.

The State Freeway Administration couldn’t say how lengthy nearly all of the streetlights had been out, however Danny Allman with SHA mentioned that it performs ‘lighting audits’ month-to-month to make sure the lights are operational. Generally, a neighborhood jurisdiction or utility firm has the accountability to take care of streetlights, however on this case alongside the outer loop, these lights fell below SHA purview.

Whereas it was not an emergency, the State Freeway Administration agreed it’s an necessary security situation.

“The State Freeway Administration is conscious of this outage, and we now have crews on the scene which can be actively working to analyze the reason for the lighting outage. A number of lights have been introduced again on-line because the repairs started,” the administration mentioned in an electronic mail.

Outages might be reported by requesting service for nonemergencies on the State Freeway Administration’s web site. However Allman mentioned the previous age of the streetlamps is driving a number of the points.

“Typically, attributable to growing older underground infrastructure equivalent to cables and conduits and electrical cupboards, when moisture enters these methods, it could actually trigger a fault that may have an effect on many lights within the system,” Allman mentioned. “Crashes could cause poles to be knocked down which may probably disrupt the ability to a number of fixtures.”

Since WTOP reported the outage, a couple of extra lights over I-495 East have come again on with shiny LED bulbs. Allman additionally famous that crews are changing gentle bulbs with LED bulbs working south from Frederick towards I-495.

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