The 17,000 streetlights in the New Zealand capital will “fall”

What started with a dangerous lamppost has turned into a major headache in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. The city’s 17,000 streetlights are unsafe and the municipality will therefore replace them.

‘Deadly’

The lamps, which weigh 11.2 kilos, are not mounted correctly. The problem appeared in 2018 and since then 17 lamps have fallen from the sky.

No one was injured, but the municipality has now called on residents to step up their alert and immediately report broken lamps. The council warned that falling lamps could be ‘deadly’ as one lamp weighs about the same as two bowling balls.

The problem is the wind. Wellington is known in New Zealand as the “windiest city” and there are few cities in the world where the wind blows so often.

Streetlights can normally support a lamp up to 60 kilos without any problem, but things often go wrong in town due to strong winds, writes New Zealand Thing.

Costs millions

The municipality announced this week that it would be the first to replace 3200 lamps which present an additional risk. About 600 have been repaired so far. In total, the operation will cost around 6 million New Zealand dollars (3.4 million euros).