City to replace streetlight, traffic poles

Improvement plan includes an assessment by local firm

It was Thanksgiving Day in November 2016, with slow traffic in Yuma, when a traffic signal pole fell over onto the middle of the street at 4th Avenue and 28th Street.

Nobody was hurt, but it was a wake-up call for the city. After investigating, city staff discovered the pole had major corrosion.

The Public Works Department decided to do a complete evaluation of all streetlight and traffic poles in the city.

“It was an eye opener,” Public Works Manager Pete Montalvo told the City Council while providing an update on the city’s streetlight replacement project during the Tuesday work session.

The project is part of the Capital Improvement Program for this year as well as next year. It has two parts: an assessment of all 8,249 metal poles in the city and replacement of those that need it.

After winning the bid in June 2017, Taylor Engineering, a local contractor, completed the assessment in May. Taylor Engineering first visually inspected the poles, looking for any signs of corrosion, and then investigated further by using an ultrasonic metal gauge and a ball-peen hammer to detect metal loss.

The firm used the system developed by structural engineer Robert L. Campbell, which assigns a condition rating to each pole. Level 4 requires immediate removal, Level 3 calls for scheduled replacement, Level 2 requires monitoring and Level 1 needs no action.

Fourteen poles were rated at Level 4 and required immediate replacement at a cost of $35,000.

At Level 3, 599 poles were found to have significant pole decay and/or damage. These poles have more than 20 percent metal loss. The poles have been placed on a replacement schedule at a cost of $1.5 million.

At Level 2, 2,539 poles were found in satisfactory condition with no more than 20 percent deterioration. The cost for inspection of these poles came to $177,000.

In Level 1 condition with

no action needed were 3,025 poles. The city continues to monitor these poles.

Wood poles were not evaluated. “We decided to evaluate metal poles first, get them out of the way,” Montalvo noted.

The city uses a maintenance management program to track the condition of the poles, separating them into zones. Workers check them on a quarterly basis and do preventive maintenance.

A lot of the problem poles are in residential neighborhoods with lots of irrigation landscaping. Montalvo explained that moisture seeps into everything, even concrete and eventually gets inside metal poles even if they are sealed.

After identifying water as a major cause of corrosion, the city approached some businesses and asked if they could change the landscaping around poles. At the Big Curve, the city removed irrigated grass and replaced it with rock landscaping.

Workers also put corrosion prevention tape around the base of metal poles to protect the steel. The city also tried using anti-corrosion paint and reinforcing poles by filling the inside, but that turned out to be too expensive.

One of the good things that came from that pole falling is that the city now has contracts in place for labor and materials, Montalvo said.

From the evaluation process, Taylor Engineering created a five-year plan, which calls for replacing at least 80 Level 3 poles per year at an annual cost of $200,000.

The plan, a first for the city, also calls for reviewing Level 2 poles under the monitoring program and developing a new plan at the end of the five years.

During the five-year plan, the city is scheduled to replace 599 streetlight poles and seven traffic signal poles. The CIP has a budget of $1 million for the five-year plan, leaving a shortfall of $500,000.

The council will hold a regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the City Hall Council Chambers, 1 City Plaza. See the complete agenda at www.yumaaz. gov.