Why you shouldn’t walk on the sidewalk in Wellington

Wellington’s streetlamps have a problem: they bend under their own weight in the wind, like wet buttercups. And that only in mild cases. When things go bad, the 11.2 kilo lamps just explode on the street in New Zealand’s capital.

No one has been injured yet, but the problem is now so serious that the city authorities feel compelled to take action – and want to replace all of the approximately 17,000 streetlights. “You have to assume that people will be seriously injured or killed if they are hit,” city spokesman Richard MacLean told The Guardian. Since the lights were installed in 2018, 17 have fallen and 161 bent, city officials said.

“Please let me know right away!”

The reason for the lanterns attitude problems is apparently an aluminum connector that is supposed to hold the lamp head with the LED bulbs on the lamp post. However, these connectors are “not made for the high winds in Wellington,” the city council said on its website. “The result is that the lamps bend down or, in the worst case, come loose and fall to the floor.”

It is reported that some 600 lanterns have already been retrofitted and an additional 3,200 are given priority in particularly windy locations. Reinforcing all 17,000 lanterns should cost the equivalent of more than 3.3 million francs. Wellington wants to get the money from the New Zealand government. Meanwhile, Mayor Tory Whanau appealed to the city’s residents: “If you see a curving streetlight anywhere, let me know right away!” (t-online/mk)