It began with a single street lamp. Like a heavy poppy bulb on a weak stem, it drooped, wilted and began to sway. Then, it dropped; 11.2kg plummeting from the sky to smash on to the footpaths of Wellington.
One lamp then turned into a handful – enough to prompt complaints to council and local newspapers. Photos of them circulated, like abandoned metal seed pods in gutters and on berms.
The handful grew to an estimated 100 – all affected by a joining fault – which was swiftly revised up to 1,000.
Now 1,000 has turned to 17,000. Every single street lamp in New Zealand’s capital city is at risk of plunging without warning on to the footpaths below them.
Wellington city council announced on Wednesday afternoon that all of its street lamps were suffering from the same fault, and urged “anyone who sees a drooping light” to report it.
So far, no one has been hurt, but at 11kg the lamps have potential to do significant damage. They weigh approximately the same as a full-grown turkey, a car tyre, or two bowling balls.
“I think it’d be safe to say that you would either be seriously injured or killed,” council spokesperson Richard MacLean told the Guardian in February.
The part at fault, according to council, is an aluminium-alloy adaptor that attaches LED lamps to poles around the city. The council said in its announcement on the matter that the adaptors “are not suited to Wellington’s strong winds, causing the lamps … to either droop or, in worst cases, detach and fall to the ground.”
The council has records of 17 lamps having fallen to the ground in the past four years, while 161 lights have been reported as drooping since the issue became widely known this year. Mayor Tory Whanau said the situation presented “a clear and unacceptable safety risk”.
“I urge anyone who sees a drooping light to notify us straight away,” Whanau said in a statement.
The task ahead presents a significant challenge for New Zealand’s capital, with just 600 lamps fixed since the fault was first observed. The council said it would cost around NZ$6m to fix them all, and it was seeking funding from the central government. It will prioritise 3,200 particularly heavy lamps in high-wind areas.
