Quote Originally Posted by Bill Robertson View Post
There are lots of problems trying to fix the problem. The conduit between light poles probably isn’t big enough to fit aluminum wire because aluminum has to be larger for the same load. Changing out thousands of miles of conduit would cost a large fortune. The lights could be changed to LED which uses much less power so then the current conduit would work. But thousands of LED street lights would again be a large fortune. Also, the market for scrap aluminum isn’t bad so aluminum wire would probably get stolen too.
These are good points, but beg the questions:

1. Is what we are doing now working? (No.)
2. Does doing stuff right cost more? (Yes.)
3. Is it acceptable for the major byways of our city to be cloaked in darkness? (No.)

So, let's get cracking on getting this fixed because it must be fixed and patching the problem further is a waste of time, effort and money.