Wichita Falls, You Have a Serious Problem With the New LED Street Lights

UPDATE The City of Wichita Falls has released the following statement on the street light issue.

Contractors replaced the High Pressure Sodium Lighting along Kell with LED lighting on Monday, February 11th.  Sometime yesterday, Tuesday, February 12th, the LED lights started "strobing" by repeatedly cycling bright and then dim.  City of Wichita Falls Traffic Control staff became aware of the problem this morning, Wednesday, February 13th.

 The City of Wichita Falls Traffic Control Division is working with the contractor and TxDOT to correct the problem.  At this time, it appears that one of the 240 volt legs of the 480 volt lighting circuit has shorted.  TxDOT has requested that the City disconnect the lights until the short(s) are repaired. Given the amount of moisture over the last eight months, several cables have corroded to the point of shorting.  Traffic Control staff will further inspect the electrical cables to determine the full extent of the damage and make repairs, accordingly.  Once the repairs are completed, the lighting circuit will be re-energized.  

 It is purely a coincidence that the shorted wires occurred at the same time as the LED lighting transition.  The Wichita Falls Traffic Control Division will dedicate staff to correcting the problem until the wires are repaired.

ORIGINAL STORY BELOW

If you were driving around late last night or early this morning you got to check out some of the new LED lights the city is putting in. You also got to see that they don't work.

You have probably seen the construction being done on our traffic lights throughout our city the past couple of days. LED lights use less electricity, they don't get as hot as normal lights and don't break as easily. Sounds like a great reason to upgrade. Unfortunately for some reason since these new lights have gone in, they don't work.

Well, some of them don't work. It is really bad near Market Street, a row of about eight flashes on and off every few seconds. I have reached out to TXDOT and they told they're aware of this situation and the city is the one in charge of putting these in. I reached out to them and no one has gotten back to me.

So our highway looks like a disco at night right now. Allow me to be Debbie Downer right now. The city better pray that no one with epilepsy is driving down that highway at night. If those lights cause someone to have a seizure and crash. You have a massive lawsuit coming your way.

via GIPHY

This issue needs to be fixed as soon as possible. I would go as far as to say as to shut down the blinking lights, cause not everyone is flashing. I don't think you want to be the ones responsible for causing a wreck on the highway.