Have they hit a cable?

redmond08 · 11-05-2023 8:35am #1

Hi I'm looking for some advice

I have a street light in my garden & yesterday I got a fence put up by a company. Last night I noticed the whole road didn't have any street lighting & I'm wondering have the lads hit a cable? Would it knock out the whole road?

Who would I contact about this? The ESB or SSE who I believe look after street lighting in my area.

Thanks!

10-10-20 · 11-05-2023 9:46am

You can usually log lighting failures online with your local council's lighting department, but that depends on whether the estate has been taken over by them or not.

Those pillars do look awfully close to that pole in fairness, not sure how they got a good stable base on that without disturbing the foundations for the light.

Lenar3556 · 11-05-2023 7:37pm

Certainly possible.

It is likely that the cabling is looped between streetlights so cable damage when fitting the fence could affect all of the lights.

Citizen Six · 11-05-2023 7:43pm

i'd have thought the cable would have come direct out to the footpath, rather than anywhere the poles could interfere with.

redmond08 · 11-05-2023 9:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120584625#Comment_120584625

That's what I thought, SSE came out & had a look at all the lampposts but they still ain't working tonight.

Jim_Hodge · 11-05-2023 9:51pm

Fitting the fence shouldn't have caused any damage to an underground cable going directly into the lighting column. What digging did they do, if any?

redmond08 · 11-05-2023 9:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120585358#Comment_120585358

They used a kango hammer either side of the pole, but didn't go down far. SSE said if they did hit the cable, they would have known about. I presume he meant they would of been electrocuted or heard a bang.

Jim_Hodge · 11-05-2023 10:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120585393#Comment_120585393

There'd have been a few sparks for sure.

Lenar3556 · 11-05-2023 10:31pm

They certainly were working in very close proximity to the cable. It would seem an incredible coincidence if the lights always worked, and failed as soon as this work was done.

It is only a LV cable suppling the lights - they could have hit it with a Kango without noticing.

10-10-20 · 11-05-2023 10:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120585609#Comment_120585609

Agreed. You can short a cable and drop a breaker without a shower of sparks.

meercat · 11-05-2023 10:53pm

Depending on the setup they could have cut the cable when there was no power (photocell or timer elsewhere)and wouldn’t have been any the wiser. I’d say there’s a good chance that’s what happened here. Sse wouldn’t be the people to speak to. Need to find the lighting contractor that was originally involved in the installation. It looks like a new estate so speak to the builder. This is not a simple fix unfortunately so time to look at public liability insurance from the fence company