Parkes Way tunnel lighting

I’ve had partial success with a fix my street job. reported a pothole near a bridge over a stormwater creek thing, within a week someone had been out and done something about it.

they sort of slopped a bit of tarmac on and around it. suffice to say, no effort to level the hole or taper off the edges, so within another week it was back to where it started. then a few more potholes formed around that area. then 8 months later they redid the whole strip of road over the bridge. they seemed to NOT use that blue-chips-all-over-the-place method, and it’s actually a half decent 5 metre stretch of road.

I’ve logged jobs with Fix My Street (mostly potholes) and they tend to get fixed within a week. Never taken much notice of Parkes Way tunnel lighting.

EvanJames said :

davo101 said :

niftydog said :

the sulphur lights

I think you mean sodium. Unless the Parkes Way tunnel is actually one of the nine circles of hell.

they’ve put sodium lights in the Parkes Way tunnel? Ye gods, those things are bright-as. What happened to the old orange lights, I wonder?

The orange lights are low pressure sodium.

trevar said :

The lighting there seems to fluctuate. Wait a couple of weeks and your First World Problem might be even smaller than it currently is 🙂

well, at leat you acknoweldge it is a ‘problem’… on a site that is more or less a blog site for the capital of a first world country, what is the relevance of decrying ‘first world problem’ at anything that seems petty to your globally-focussed world problem solving razor intellect? or mebbe you could go inhabit on of these non-first world environments and go from there..?

davo101 said :

niftydog said :

the sulphur lights

I think you mean sodium. Unless the Parkes Way tunnel is actually one of the nine circles of hell.

they’ve put sodium lights in the Parkes Way tunnel? Ye gods, those things are bright-as. What happened to the old orange lights, I wonder?

“…the last time I used that useless fix my street rubbish I ended up walking down the road with trimmers and a mower and fixing it myself.”

I really think you should make contact with TAMS. Not sure your trimmers and mower will be much use to you this time.

Right, sodium, duh. Sulphur is yellow… damn you brain!

Dilandach said :

…and now you know why they keep those doors on the sides closed.

I saw one ajar the other day, should we be worried?

davo101 said :

niftydog said :

the sulphur lights

I think you mean sodium. Unless the Parkes Way tunnel is actually one of the nine circles of hell.

Look it up people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_lamp

davo101 said :

niftydog said :

the sulphur lights

I think you mean sodium. Unless the Parkes Way tunnel is actually one of the nine circles of hell.

…and now you know why they keep those doors on the sides closed.

niftydog said :

the sulphur lights

I think you mean sodium. Unless the Parkes Way tunnel is actually one of the nine circles of hell.

Now that I think about it, I think the M5 tunnel underneath the airport runway has more intense lights.

When I drive through there, it feels like driving through an oven (not the heat but the sensation)

MelonHead said :

My bet is that the control system for this is now broken/out of date, (It is quite an old tunnel) and that no one in authority has the kahunas to fix it. The cheap option, and less liable prone solution, seems to be to turn on as many lights as possible and hope that the problem goes away.

Gets my vote.

I also had a deeply underwhelming experience of ACTGovCo’s fix-my-street bollocks … a clear safety issue wherein traffic was forced across the centre line around a blind bend. Johnny No Stars came out and told me it was OK coz it’s not a double-yellow line so crossing it is perfectly legal. Safety? Que?

Hence, I would be reluctant to try again … am confident that ACTGovCo’s response will be to do nothing wherever possible.

“wonder if I am the only person in this town who gives a s*** about things working right any more.” … well, you’re in good company, but it’s a dwindling minority.

Funny you should talk about bright lights. Recently in my street the bulbs in the street lamps were changed from what I would describe the standard orange to something that resembles the light when there is a full moon. I find myself frequently looking out of the window on my way to bed to check that there is not a full moon. I’m wondering why they changed them all of a sudden – they seemed to be working fine.

I remember reading about this tunnel and its lighting. It was designed with all the features mentioned. The lighting was to change during the day, and at night time, based on surrounding ambient light. The evidence of this is the different fittings at each end of the tunnel, should you chose to glance upwards as you make your way. These different fittings were meant to emulate the surrounding light and transition the traveler from light to tunnel, and back.

My bet is that the control system for this is now broken/out of date, (It is quite an old tunnel) and that no one in authority has the kahunas to fix it. The cheap option, and less liable prone solution, seems to be to turn on as many lights as possible and hope that the problem goes away.

Another fluster cluck from those we expect more of.

The lighting there seems to fluctuate. Wait a couple of weeks and your First World Problem might be even smaller than it currently is 🙂

It’s interesting you say that. Last week as I was leaving the ANU campus I happened to glance across at the tunnel entry as I was heading in the other direction, and thought to myself “holy crap, that tunnel looks *really* bright”.

I’m glad I’m not the only one! This has bugged me for a long time as it’s been screwed up for ages.

For a while there they had it backwards – the sulphur lights on during the day and the white lights on at night. Then lot of bulbs burned out and it was very dim, they even seemed to deliberately turn off strips of lights.

At some stage a few months back a whole lot of bulbs were replaced. Now it’s retina-burningly bright at night and probably still dark as a coal mine during the day.

Numerous street lights around Glenloch are out too.

They seem to turn the lights on randomly.

I wouldn’t consider it so bright that in desperation to get away from the blinding light scorching my face, instantly causing third degree burns and filling the car with a burning flesh smell that I’d consider hooking the steering wheel left into the wall while screaming at the freddy krueger-esque face appearing in the mirror just before I hit the wall in an attempt at sweet release.

I’d say its tolerable.

I haven’t found it to be a problem. I’m not sure how it can be too bright considering how many of the lights have blown.

I dont find it too bright, but that’s a personal feeling, I can see how it might be a problem for some.

I remember about 20 years ago when it used be as bright as it is, then slowly over time it got duller and duller. When growing up we used to call it the ‘Orange Tunnel’ but up until about 6 months ago there weren’t any orange coloured lights. I guess they’re going back to how it was.