Street light outages ‘unnerving’

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This article was published 15/11/2023 (881 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prolonged street light outages in Winnipeg are prompting concerns about road and sidewalk safety, with some blocks being in the dark for days or weeks at a time when the sun is going down earlier.

Norwood Flats residents said many street lights were off within a large area between St. Mary’s Road and the Red River for several nights in a row starting last week.

“It was certainly very dark,” said Trevor Barratt. “If you’re a little bit anxious about being outside, it’s definitely going to be scary. It’s a little unnerving.”

Some residents reported the outage multiple times to Manitoba Hydro, which is responsible for the city’s roughly 75,000 street lights.

Hydro spokesman Riley McDonald said the Norwood Flats outage — caused by an equipment issue on one of the lights — was fixed Monday.

Residents of River Heights, West Broadway and the West End have also complained of lengthy outages recently.

Hydro previously reported a 26 per cent spike in multiple street light outages between July and September, compared with the same period in 2022. Single-light outages were up 39 per cent.

“This October, we’ve had fewer reports of single and multiple street light outages than last year, but we’re still working through a backlog from the summer months caused by underground cable damages and defective luminaries (including lights turning off, strobing, and purple lights),” McDonald wrote in an email. “Water renewal and road work projects, and an overall increase in construction projects in the summer, also impacted our street light infrastructure.”

McDonald said Hydro crews respond to outages as soon as time, staffing and resources allow.

Online reports go directly into a maintenance queue, he said.

“Street lights are grouped together in circuits, which is how large groups can sometimes be out at the same time,” McDonald wrote. “We appreciate everyone’s patience while we work to get street lights back on. Our crews are working as quickly and safely as possible through the queue.”

Outages should be reported to the Crown corporation by calling 204-480-5900 or filling out a form on its website.

St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard received a couple of emails over the weekend about the Norwood Flats outage. He forwarded the residents’ concerns to city employees who are in contact with Hydro.

“It usually does get resolved after it starts getting raised by area residents,” said Allard.

Roads and sidewalks can become more dangerous when the minimum street lighting standard isn’t met, he said.

While Hydro is responsible for maintaining street lights, the political responsibility rests with the provincial government, not the city, Allard said.

For about two weeks, a row of six street lights has been dark on Broadway between Sherbrook and Spence streets, said Brad Milne, who lives in the area. The stretch of Broadway is about a five-minute walk from the Manitoba legislative grounds.

“I haven’t noticed this many (street lights out) in one spot for this long,” said Milne, noting the area has a lot of foot traffic. “I could definitely see other people not necessarily feeling safe.”

Angela Klassen, co-ordinator of Bear Clan Patrol’s West Broadway chapter, said the outage raises concerns, given anecdotal reports of crime in the neighbourhood.

“There are some pretty dark spaces there,” she said. “I’ve heard many stories about folks travelling at night and being asked for their belongings or having their belongings taken from them.”

Hannah Mihychuk Marshall noticed some street lights were out or flashing while driving along sections of Grant and Taylor avenues in River Heights on last week.

“It’s a pretty high-speed area with several schools along it,” she said, referring to Grant . “It’s getting dark a bit earlier, when kids are still outside.”

Some West End residents contacted Manitoba Hydro about outages in October. A Valour Road resident told the Free Press last month all street lights were out on the block between Sargent and Wellington avenues.

She called repeatedly and was told her street — one of many temporarily in darkness — was a priority.

“They fixed them. I was surprised it took over three weeks to do it,” the woman, who asked not to be named, said Tuesday. “It was really frustrating. There are a lot of safety concerns because the streets are dark and you don’t know who’s hiding behind a bush or whatever. We have a lot of crime in this area.”

For some Winnipeggers, their first port of call is the city’s 311 service instead of Hydro, where reports should be directed. City spokesman Ken Allen said 311 staff provide contact details for the public utility.

So far this year, the service has referred 329 people to Hydro to report matters such as building power outages or street lighting concerns, said Allen.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca