Submitted by rovinchick t3_10kzqih in philadelphia
Seems like the original incandescent lighting from 1979 might have been the best, as the replacement in 2005 only lasted 11 years, and the latest update from 2016 looks really horrible right now with huge gaps of darkness and mixed lighting in the few that actually do work. Why can't the city get this right?
They've been messed up a lot longer than that — like 2019/2020. Might've been a winter flood that did it.
There was a pretty strong flash food August 2020
Can confirm
I’d love to see all of the SRT actually have safe lighting. There’s a section that the lights have been out for month. I end up using my phone flashlight.
Seriously needs good lighting. You would think they'd do more considering how many people are on the SRT, but nahhhh. Outdoor recreation here suckss
You gotta get yourself a headlamp!
[removed]
this was my biggest gripe with the refresh of the boathouse row lighting, and lo and behold it only took a year or two for the refresh to become as dysfunctional as the original white bulbs. if you had to boil down the idea of philadelphia as a functioning city, the disjoint and constantly failing boathouse row lights would be the perfect metaphor.
it's probably something to do with how they're wiring the segments together at each house. unless each boathouse had new electrical run before the city installed the LED strips, it's all for nothing. each house has some illumination, but the random dark areas return frequently.
FWIW PECO/the city seem to fix the problems before a big lighting campaign is set to happen; i remember it looking OK for christmas. just a shame they haven't been able to fix whatever the core problem has been.
It's amazing that the lights on the PECO building and the Cira Center at 30th Street never seem to have any problems. My guess is that IBEW is trying to ensure a future of contracts with the city to keep rewiring.
yeah modern infrastructure and building practices are a hell of a thing!
boathouse row came about in the middle of the 1800s.
But the current lighting was added in 2016, seems it should last more than 7 years. 🤷
who knows what the work looked like to upgrade the lighting though. if i had my guess, i'd say they tore out all the incandescent electrical and literally slapped LED strips on top. i would imagine the lights run on a different circuit than the electrical for each boathouse, but who knows?
i think the core issue is the way the electrical is laid out in those buildings and on the lighting circuit in general. until you enhance the way the circuit is designed and fix the physical wiring therein, you're just polishing a turd.
the boathouses are historically designated as well, so that likely adds a lot of cost and headaches for making modifications. not to say knob and tube is historically designated, but unless all those boathouses have been ripped down to studs and reworked for electrical, there will always be problems.
It's a lot harder to maintain outdoor lights in this climate. Even IP65 struggles in the freezing cold.
IIRC you don't need a permit for low voltage, which is what I assume these are because of LEDs.
Also they are outside and exposed to the elements, the Cira ones at least are behind glass.
[removed]
Penn's boathouse has been down for more than a year because of the renovation/expansion — that's close to if not completely done, so the big middle gap should get closed up.
Penn AC, Undine, Girls Club and the Turtle Rock light have been varying degrees of messed up for a few years, probably damage from one of the floods that hasn't gotten addressed, potentially because Penn was going to be down for so long anyway.
I have been told there is a plan
They went out all the time back in the day too, but it cost more to fix (and run, of course).
As for why PECO can’t stay on top of it today, I wish I knew…
When I rowed out there the fucking control box was in the boat bay less than 5 feet off the floor. So there's half your answer.
[removed]
Are the city responsible?
The city, though the Parks and Rec Department, paid for the relighting and also charge organizations that want to request a special lighting color.
joeltheprocess76 t1_j5toqa9 wrote
I think the floods that happened in 2021 due to Hurricane Ida really did a number on Boathouse Row