If Calgarians’ early-morning commute took them down 26 Avenue S.W. on Friday morning, they may have inadvertently found themselves in what looked like a strobe light party.
Global1 chopper captured video of the street lights along a stretch of 26 Avenue S.W. — from Crowchild Trail to 14 Street S.W. — flashing like a strobe light before the sun had come up on Friday.
The lights were flashing rapidly as a few cars slowly made their way down the stretch.
According to the City of Calgary, the overhead wires strung from light pole to light pole are the originals — meaning they’re 40 to 50 years old — are degrading and in need of repair.
ENMAX was dispatched to the scene in the morning and the fuses on the lights were pulled to stop the flashing.
The city said the flashing could indicate a voltage problem — the LED lights in the city’s streetlights need 120 to 227 volts. If the voltage isn’t met, that could cause them to blink.
“We treat flashing lights as a high priority item in our service level agreement with ENMAX,” the city said, adding that the minimum response time for one flashing light is seven days.
“In this situation, we are expediting our response due to the large number of flickering lights.”
Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, crews will work to fix the lights.
On Friday night, the city said there will be no lights working on that stretch of road. By Saturday night, officials expect to have 50 per cent of the lights working again. It’s expected all lights will be working by end of day Sunday.
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