THOUGH I do a lot of history in Forgotten New York, it’s ultimately a site about infrastructure…I have been taking a keen interest in things like stoplights and lampposts since I was five years old and a wholesale changing of the guard from castiron to aluminum was going on in NYC street lighting. It was a revolution of sorts and I was there to see it all.
In western Queens, I’ve noticed that standard poles have begin to take on new roles. I noticed this standard at Woodside Avenue and 59th Street in front of Pizza Boy II, where the “pedestrian control” stoplight as well as the control box for the intersection’s stoplights are mounted on an octagonal pole usually reserved for 20-foot tall (shorter under elevated trains). I’ve never seen this particular configuration previously; the walk/don’t walk boxes are usually placed on shorter, cylindrical S-1 poles (see below). The “octas” have been around since 1950 and are the default for streetlamps, be they straight masts or “cobra necks.”
Though the S-1s usually carry stoplights or pedestrian control boxes, this one on 2nd Street in Hunters Point has to content itself with carrying a one-way sign; usually that task is conferred to green poles drilled with holes that allow the DOT to mount as many signs on them as is necessary. My thinking is that the DOT planned to install ped-boxes here, but has yet to do so; the area has been newly built-up over the past decade.
The ever evolving state of NYC infrastructure…
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10/17/22
5 comments
I use a steel street light base as a base for one of anvils. It was THE perfect height and proportion…
And here I thought it was going to be an article about people whose names end on “-ski” or “-owicz”… 😉
Roles for Poles sounds like it may have been a secondary act at a Tears For Fears concert
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Song+Everybody+wants+to+rule+the+world&docid=608007772934702204&mid=303C391603F91EE2838C303C391603F91EE2838C&view=detail&FORM=VRAASM&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dtears%2Bfor%2Bfears%2Beverybody%2Bwants%2Bto%2Brule%2Bworld%26qpvt%3Dtears%2Bfor%2Bfears%2Beverybody%2Bwants%2Bto%2Brule%2Bworld%26FORM%3DVDRE
Expect to see major changes at most intersections throughout the City. DOT just ended bidding on the contract for” Design and Installation of Accessible Pedestrian Signals Throughout New York City”. Welsbach Electric was the low bidder at a little less than twenty-nine million dollars per borough
There is another new type of pole I just saw for the first time. The existing pole on the south east corner of Newtown Road and 30th avenue was removed. The foundation was reconstructed and a conduit was run to the foundation from a New York Telephone Company manhole about twenty feet away. The new pole that was installed was similar to the standard fabricated steel octagonal pole except that it is equipped with four plates at the top to accommodate street light arms. There are also four holes spaced 90 degrees apart at the very top of the pole. A few days ago a monstrous antenna was installed on the pole.
I am wondering if this is the new standard NYC pole. It would make sense since so many intersections have had additional street light arms installed at a 90 degree angle to the existing arm. And antennas mounted on street light poles are being installed throughout the City.