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Councilors want to make sure nobody else gets bonked by a falling light pole
By adamg on Mon, 10/03/2022 - 10:08pm
City Councilors Ed Flynn and Michael Flaherty will do their part to prod the city - and state and federal - public-works crews to ensure we won't see any repeats of the incident last week when a light pole held only by rusted bolts gave way and fell on a woman walking across the Moakley Bridge.
At a City Council meeting on Wednesday, the two councilors will ask for a committee to gather up officials for a hearing to illuminate what a coastal city with rough weather can do to ensure poles stop falling like that. They noted that after the pole failure, an inspection showed 23 other light poles on the bridge over Fort Point Channel were in equally bad shape - and were quickly removed, to be replaced by temporary lights.
This incident illustrates the need to ensure that our light poles, bridges, and other public infrastructure are safe and stable for our residents and visitors alike, including our pedestrians, motorists, and cyclists, especially as harsh weather, sea air, and salt water can deteriorate the city’s infrastructure ...
As a coastal city with many bridges, and as a city with harsh New England weather, light poles and public infrastructure inevitably get corroded by salt water and the elements, and we need to ensure that they are safe, especially those that are in close proximity to the ocean ...
It is critical that the City be diligent in inspecting all of its light poles, bridges, and public infrastructure to make any necessary repairs in a timely manner, and working to
the best of our ability with our state and federal partners to ensure that incident like this will not happen again.
Neighborhoods:
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 Request for hearing on light poles | 96.72 KB |
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Comments
Why don't they just respond
Why don't they just respond to 311 complaints?
Too Obvious
Too Obvious, less bureaucratic.
Doing that means they wouldn't have that lime line to show "We are doing something".
Instead they will just add another layer, instead of just fixing what was broken in the first place. More time wasted on something else, than fix the core issue (outside of rotted lamp posts) which is this.. reply to tickets. People have been complaining about this and other things for years.
Anyone remember the whole big to do about stray voltage on city light poles & utility covers? Yeah it still happens. People still write tickets, seldom is done. I see more light poles with the guts hanging out the bottom.. and clearly asking for some dog or child to toy with it.. than I do functioning ones.
Some days I wonder what some of these maintenance people do all day.. if they are bogged down, time to hire people (or find a new contractor who isn't pinching pennies and will hire enough people).
"our failing infrastructure" indeed. Clearly it isn't being maintained properly or people just do not care to fix it.
Grandstanding
They can't claim to have done anything if things are routinely repaired.
Nope - gotta cut a ribbon on it! Gotta be seen "fixing problems" even when all that happens is a lot of hot air.
held only by rusted bolts
Was some other retention device missing?
Yep
Unrusted bolts.
Political Ambulance Chasing
It's a good thing we have Ed Flynn and Flaherty to protect certain parts of the city after an incident occurs. I wonder if they would have the same response if this incident happened in Roxbury?
Those two are the worst political ambulance chasers.
Mr. Hankey - The Christmas Pooh
Your name says it all.
Interesting
Dont those areas have elected councilors.
Flynn and Flaherty are actually doing their jobs, which is more than you can say about certain councilors preoccupied with virtue signaling at every opportunity.
If they were "doing their jobs"
Things would be routinely inspected and any 311 complaints that invariably lead up to these events would be addressed and things would be routinely fixed.
But you can't grandstand on things being routinely fixed.
As my late father used to say "you can't cut a ribbon on a fixed pothole".
I have to wonder if either of their offices logged a call about said light pole at any time before it toppled?
This is what happens when you
This is what happens when you only spend money on infrastructure for vehicles. And that's spotty at best.