Update on Entrance Lighting Outage

I met with the electrician on Thursday of this past week to discuss the situation with the lights that are out at the entrance. 

He gave me the tour of the wiring situation—he showed me things landscapers and non-licensed electricians do to cut corners.  A good, licensed electrician will use conduit outdoors, especially when putting wire under things like roads.  This improves the reliability of the wiring by protecting it from rocks (we have a few in our soil) and, to some degree, shovels and water.  It also makes it easier to diagnose and correct issues because it’s easier to find the end points.  With the exception of the conduit that leads from the power panel into the ground, there is no conduit around our entrance.  As such, the electrician is unable to locate the wire that supplies electricity to the median and right side of the entrance. 

Getting power back to the median and right side of the entrance is going to be expensive.  It will require trenching under the road or getting someone out with special equipment to locate the wire.

The board discussed the situation at our meeting on Saturday.  We’ve decided to take a phased approach to correcting the problem. 

We will have the lights along the left side of the waterfall fixed immediately—as quickly as the electrician can work us into his schedule.  He told me he has about a week’s worth of backlog.  This will get full lighting back on the sign and landmark used to direct people to the subdivision.

Meanwhile, I will pursue bids for a wire locator service and for trenching under the road.  The board will then review the cost and make a decision about how to proceed.  Certainly, one option is to do nothing in those areas.