Transport Canberra and City Services has called for community support to identify power outages and/or electrical faults in streetlights and other public assets.
The Directorate said that with daylight savings recently ending and darkness extending, it had become easier to notice a fault or outage that might have been passed over before.
“Like the electrical devices in your home such as the toaster or kettle, public electric assets can become a hazard when faulty, and any information you can provide about a fault or outage can help us fix the problem sooner,” the Directorate said.
“The community should avoid coming into contact with accessible Territory-owned electrical assets, including streetlights and irrigation control boxes or Evoenergy-owned electrical assets such as power poles, substations and mini pillars as a precaution.”
It said it was committed to providing safe and reliable public assets and the community’s help in identifying faults would allow it to take appropriate action sooner.
The Directorate said people would also be seeing more activity around streetlights in coming weeks as a new contractor was undertaking an electrical safety inspection program to check the condition of streetlight columns.
“The inspection program will physically test the condition of poles,” the Directorate said.
“Nearly 40 per cent of all streetlight poles have already been inspected, and electrical works will be undertaken if required.”
It said reports of faults or outages should be directed to Access Canberra on 13 22 81 or through Fix My Street at www.act.gov.au/fixmystreet.
