Freeways With High-mast Lighting

[foxmulder]

I really think they contribute to the awful light pollution we have everywhere.

Light pollution?! You guys are nuts, This is a BIG city, i tried to get on the freeway a few times and couldn't see the on ramp. 610 in front of Astroworld is bad at night time. On 225 a mile or so of cable got smashed by an accident and all the lights went out. Ironically The city of Houston installed a new electrical line from Goodyear to Richey in Pasadena. One foggy night on broadway i almost ran over a guy cause it was dark and foggy. They had high mast lighting but it was off. I called and emailed the city/TXdot and they repaired it.

[gardenoaksguy]

Light pollution?! You guys are nuts, This is a BIG city, i tried to get on the freeway a few times and couldn't see the on ramp. 610 in front of Astroworld is bad at night time. On 225 a mile or so of cable got smashed by an accident and all the lights went out. Ironically The city of Houston installed a new electrical line from Goodyear to Richey in Pasadena. One foggy night on broadway i almost ran over a guy cause it was dark and foggy. They had high mast lighting but it was off. I called and emailed the city/TXdot and they repaired it.

You bettcha light pollution. As I started seeing these things pop up I was concerned they would pop up on the North Loop...and sure enough they did. I live 3 blocks from the loop and can see these horrid things through thick trees at night. There was no attempt by TXDOT to "aim" the lights or to try to minimize their impact on surrounding neighborhoods. I know this is the city with a lot of lighting, but now we have mast lights and still have the lighting on the access roads that pre-existed. When I look out my windows at night I just see big blotches of orange light. So much for quality of life.

Edited May 14, 2008 by gardenoaksguy

[LakefrontLisa]

They are adding high mast lighting to 59 right around Minute Maid, going south to Fannin. In fact, one just went up last night within view of my house. Hopefully it wont light up my bedroom at night.

*crosses fingers*

So what did the verdict turn out to be? Bedroom to be lit up or not?

[DaTrain]

Next Houston freeway up for mast installment: 225.

[afang]

High Mast lighting is safer for travel. I have been to most of the cities in this country and only Houston has so many of these lights which makes other cities a lot darker and a lot more unsafe to travel at night. Now if they can get rid of those ugly utilities lines everywhere then it would be perfect

Edited March 22, 2011 by afang

[IronTiger]

Recently, some high-mast lighting was put up near a new overpass near me (College Station), which was weird because said overpass wasn't even an actual highway (it's about a mile stretch between two regular stoplights). I can see the lights from the second floor of my house.

[pderry11]

If high mast lighting is so desirable, how come image-conscious DFW doesn't use it? Stop viewing this from an engineering standpoint for a moment and consider the damage these things do to the aesthetics/image/psyche of the city. The fact is, high mast lighting is ugly.

US75 through McKinney will be entirely reconstructed and relit with 12-lamp high-mast lighting. I think it's starting to catch on up here. The new Parker Rd./US-75 SPUI also uses high-mast lighting as well as a shorter segment further down that requires extra illumination. SH-121 (Sam Rayburn Tollway) is illuminated past the Dallas North Tollway with high-mast lighting as well. I think wherever they can be built, either because of a new road or reconstruction they tend to be considered. Personally I don't think they're that bad. One of the neat features on some is they have directed cut-off lighting without any funny eyelids so the light ends up on the road and not in the properties behind them.

I always thought Houston had an interesting menagerie of those things. Coming in on IH-45 from Conroe one sees the 12-lamp variety TxDOT has adopted to an old directed lighting system from way back when north of BW8 to another style (Z-pattern) from there on to the 45/10 interchange.

So far as I can tell, there are two other places in the state that use the Z-pattern lighting system found so prolifically along Houston's freeways: a short stretch of IH-35W in Fort Worth and IH-35 and 37 in San Antonio around downtown.

Edited May 26, 2011 by pderry11

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

they're going to rebuild 75 again?

[pderry11]

they're going to rebuild 75 again?

The stretch from SH-121 north through McKinney has never been rebuilt (I don't think they've done anything up the the Grayson county line either.) It's the same old highway they had in the 60s when it was first built. Yeah, it's been repaved and a couple ramps lengthened but it's still 4 lanes with two lane feeders. The stretch through Sherman, TX is the same too. I hate those ramps...

Edited May 31, 2011 by pderry11

[Trae]

US75 through McKinney will be entirely reconstructed and relit with 12-lamp high-mast lighting. I think it's starting to catch on up here. The new Parker Rd./US-75 SPUI also uses high-mast lighting as well as a shorter segment further down that requires extra illumination. SH-121 (Sam Rayburn Tollway) is illuminated past the Dallas North Tollway with high-mast lighting as well. I think wherever they can be built, either because of a new road or reconstruction they tend to be considered. Personally I don't think they're that bad. One of the neat features on some is they have directed cut-off lighting without any funny eyelids so the light ends up on the road and not in the properties behind them.

I always thought Houston had an interesting menagerie of those things. Coming in on IH-45 from Conroe one sees the 12-lamp variety TxDOT has adopted to an old directed lighting system from way back when north of BW8 to another style (Z-pattern) from there on to the 45/10 interchange.

So far as I can tell, there are two other places in the state that use the Z-pattern lighting system found so prolifically along Houston's freeways: a short stretch of IH-35W in Fort Worth and IH-35 and 37 in San Antonio around downtown.

They need to work on I-20. There is always random crap in the freeway lanes, but it's so dark driving through South Dallas to Forest Hill. You can't see anything. I have noticed more lighting around the freeways here in DFW, though it's mainly at freeway-to-freeway interchanges.

[scarface]

MORE HIGH MAST LIGHTING POLES IN THE GREENWAY PLAZA AREA GOING UP ???? :angry:

 

 

What's with Houston? Like we need more of these high mast lighting, obstructing Houston's fascinating night skyline views. Doesn't greenway plaza already have enough high mass lighting clouding over the freeway?

 

I almost started a new thread over this, but didn't think my rant was worth it.

 

Edited September 30, 2014 by scarface

[JLWM8609]

MORE HIGH MAST LIGHTING POLES IN THE GREENWAY PLAZA AREA GOING UP ???? :angry:

 

 

What's with Houston? Like we need more of these high mast lighting, obstructing Houston's fascinating night skyline views. Doesn't greenway plaza already have enough high mass lighting clouding over the freeway?

 

I almost started a new thread over this, but didn't think my rant was worth it.

 

I think they're replacing old high mast poles with new ones. If you take a look, you'll see they're being in close proximity with other poles.

[IronTiger]

If I recall correctly, the newer mast lighting may be yellowish as opposed to white. I was a bit surprised that when they added HM lighting for an overpass in CS (that, of all the roads, wasn't a major highway, speed didn't top 50 mph), it was yellow instead of white as expected. Were the older ones white or yellow?

Edited October 1, 2014 by IronTiger

[OkieEric]

HMLs or UFOs?  I hadn't really noticed high mast lights until they started installing them along the southern stretch of 610, as well as 45 S.  I knew immediately what this UFO was when it was in the news last month

[mollusk]

The newer lights tend to be sodium vapor, with a yellow orange light, rather than mercury vapor, which has a bluer light.  Supposedly the sodium lights create less light pollution; still, there's plenty of spill over into adjacent neighborhoods that didn't occur with the lower profile cobra lamps.

 

I certainly get the idea of having better lighting for safety.  I just hope that the altitude of the light sources can be lowered back down as LED technology continues to improve and become less expensive.  I'd like to be able to take the blackout curtains back out of my bedroom.

[IronTiger]

The newer lights tend to be sodium vapor, with a yellow orange light, rather than mercury vapor, which has a bluer light.  Supposedly the sodium lights create less light pollution; still, there's plenty of spill over into adjacent neighborhoods that didn't occur with the lower profile cobra lamps.

 

I certainly get the idea of having better lighting for safety.  I just hope that the altitude of the light sources can be lowered back down as LED technology continues to improve and become less expensive.  I'd like to be able to take the blackout curtains back out of my bedroom.

Sodium does burn yellow, but mercury vapor, especially older mercury vapor lights, tends to green after a while.

[luciaphile]

MORE HIGH MAST LIGHTING POLES IN THE GREENWAY PLAZA AREA GOING UP ???? :angry:

 

 

What's with Houston? Like we need more of these high mast lighting, obstructing Houston's fascinating night skyline views. Doesn't greenway plaza already have enough high mass lighting clouding over the freeway?

 

I almost started a new thread over this, but didn't think my rant was worth it.

 

I would have enjoyed that rant!

 

One of the things about America's troubled future that I actually look forward to, is the lights going out, and no one replacing them.

[scarface]

I would have enjoyed that rant!

 

One of the things about America's troubled future that I actually look forward to, is the lights going out, and no one replacing them.

 

Don't worry, Houston has enough light hovering over all of its freeways to spare it wouldn't be noticed