Light Pole Recall 1

[JLNJ]

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/cont...s/2009/09/16/another_whitco_pole_topples.html

Evidently there is a massive recall for light poles manufactured by Whitco LP and sold in the last ten years. Generally these are poles over 70 feet tall. While there have been some dramatic failures, no one has been hurt - yet. The company is out of business (no surprise) and the schools and towns have no recourse and face costly replacement/repair options.

Apparently the welds seem to be the issue. Do any of you have first hand experience with these poles or the actual cause of the failures? Some of the photos of dismantled poles show large horizontal cracks in the pole-to-base-plate weld.

I am trying to get a sense of whether the failure is due to the design itself or the weld craftsmanship. Some of the articles point to the fact that the pole material may hace come from Mexico, but it is not clear where the base plate fabrication took place.

 

[JLNJ]

Some photos of failures from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10295.html

 

[JedClampett]

See earlier thread on this.

thread507-244356

 

[a2mfk]

There was an article maybe a year or two ago in Modern Steel Con or Structure about these types of failures in light poles. I think they were mostly with the welds of the pole to the base, and I want to say it was dynamic loading due to oscillation during wind events (even at lower speeds) causing fatigue stress failures at the weld or pole material...

I am sure some googling could find this article.

 

[JLNJ]

I have seen DOT work for signs but I don't remember light poles specifically being a concern.

For an industrious engineer there might be a lot of work available countrywide to inspect and remediate all these pole-to-base-plate connections. There are more than 2500 poles covered in this recall. There is a PDF published of suspect installations and that PDF is in excess of 100 pages long.

 

[engineertipsman]

JLNL, Wouldnt that be taking on all the liability too? I suppose thats the case. I would want to steer clear of it, just wouldnt want my name associated with it.

 

[JLNJ]

I suppose the amount of liability you take on would be based on how your contract reads. Regardless, I have seen some structural engineers with a high level of tolerance and responsibility for comparatively little fee. I even know one guy (a one-man show) who refuses to carry any sort of liability insurance!

These schools and municipalities need someone to step up and help them out. It would be a pity if some school had to shell out $250,000 to replace all their lights just because they couldn't get a structural engineer to take on the work. Maybe that's the way it has to be...I don't know.