24
JUNE 2020
LIGHTING JOURNAL
EMBELLISHMENT
REINVENTED An innovative non-metallic polymer lighting column embellishment kit has been developed as an alternative to traditional cast-iron kits, and is now being rolled out on lighting columns within Essex
By Jonathan Brown
T
here are more than 4,000 lighting columns fitted with traditional castiron embellishments in the county of Essex, all maintained by Essex Highways, a partnership between Ringway Jacobs and Essex County Council. In early 2019 a lighting column with traditional cast-iron embellishments was involved in a road traffic incident and knocked down. On inspection, it was found to have rusted through beneath the embellishment kit. This type of corrosion (as most ILP members will undoubtedly be well aware) is called galvanic corrosion. If this column hadn’t been knocked down in the accident, it is possible it would have collapsed anyway because of a lack of structural integrity. This column was not the first, nor likely to be the last, that was potentially unsafe because of galvanic corrosion, with such degradation over time one of the key drivers behind the ILP’s launch last year of its GN22 ATOMS asset management toolkit. Columns with and without
embellishments are routinely tested for their structural integrity. But testing columns with traditional cast-iron embellishment kits is problematic. Often columns with traditional castiron embellishments are marked ‘unable to test’ as the cast iron interferes with the test. The only way to carry out the test properly is it to remove and refit the cast-iron embellishments. In practice, this is not feasible because of time, access and compromised fixings. This article intends to outline how at TMP Solutions we have been working with Essex Highways to develop a non-metallic polymer lighting column embellishment kit as a safer and more economical alternative to traditional cast-iron kits. These new polymer embellishments eliminate the structural safety issues caused by galvanic corrosion and can make column testing quicker, safer and more economical, as the embellishments don’t need to be removed during the testing procedure.
