To hang or affix? St. John's defends how it installs traffic lights

St. John's is defending how it chooses to hang traffic lights in the city following criticism on social media.

The city released a statement Tuesday defending its choice of hanging traffic lights from poles, instead of bolting them directly to the pole.

• Watch out below! Taxi driver escapes falling traffic light

After Saturday's hurricane-force winds, people on social media criticized the practice of hanging the lights, which they believe was partially to blame for the dozens of lights knocked out of service.

"There's pros and cons to every type," Counc. Danny Breen told reporters on Monday.

He said lights that are directly attached catch more wind, which eventually degrades the pole and damages it faster.

In its statement Tuesday, the city said affixed signals shorten the life of the pole, and fewer lights can be attached to poles if they are fixed.

The city said it has two types of mounts, a rigid mount that has some flexibility with a spring that allows for some movement, and a swivel mount that allows for more movement. It said the chains do not hold the traffic light in place, but act as a backup in case of a failure.

"Although more than 140 fixtures were damaged during the recent wind storm, they did not all fall from the poles," the city said. "In fact, most of the safety chains held and many of the lights missing from poles were removed by staff."

Breen added that in some situations on the weekend whole poles could have been damaged and given way had the lights been bolted on directly.

Breen said the weekend's weather was a special circumstance.

"It's the first time I've seen those lights, actually in that magnitude, come off the poles. We were in to a very, very unusual windstorm." 

Watch traffic lights fall in front of taxi

8 years ago

Duration 0:35

Watch traffic lights fall in front of taxi