Metal Halide Lights
Junction 18, M62, Bury, Lancs
Taken March 2002
SurvivingChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), so can be assumed to be surviving at least as far as that date
as of June 2023
Update Jul 2024: Latest GSV (June 2023) suggests that against the odds, these fixtures are still present.
This seems to be an experiment in MH roadway lighting. It is a junction of two motorways, the M62 (Leeds/Liverpool) and M66 which goes to Ramsbottom, known locally as Simister Island. It's laid out as a big roundabout, and used to be lit by HPS, as is the M66, the on-ramp of which you can see in the first two pics. Now it is lit by luminaires which each have two MH lamps and two reflectors, (you can just about see this in the pics) one angled further across the road than the other. I'm told these are Urbis ZX4's and the MH lamps are 400W. The result of this is very good- it doesn't feel as bright as the HPS lighting but you can distinguish colours properly.
Culcheth, Warrington
Taken March 2002
RemovedChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), removal happened as late as that date or before
as of May 2017
Update Jul 2024: Latest GSV suggests these were removed by 2017 and are now Philips Luma LED. I was commenting below about quartz MH lamps, the Philips Iridium fixtures that were installed here were ceramic MH which is much better for colour stability.
A quick word about the pics. first- I've shown all nighttime shots because I'm trying to show the 'ambience' created by MH- within the limits of my camera to show the colours accurately.
This is a short stretch of the B5207 (Common Lane) in Culcheth centre. I first noticed this had been changed to metal halide about six months ago, and went back this week to take some pics. Three things struck me- the colour of these is much warmer than the ones on the motorway roundabout- deliberately specified because this is a residential area. Secondly, all the run of 10 or 12 lamps were not showing any noticable shift in colour temperature since I last visited (six months ago) and all were remarkably similar in colour still. I mention this because I've seen indoor metal halide installations in shops where every luminaire was a different colour. Thirdly, and you can probably see this from the pictures, the lighting is very even, and the atmosphere due to the warm-white colour very pleasing.
RemovedChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), removal happened as late as that date or before
as of mid 2010s
Now on my drive back home, I passed this T-junction (on the A574) where the 3 columns around it had been changed to semi-cutoff metal halide luminaires. I think the local council is beginning to see the light (as it were) regarding MH, and I can only assume this is another experiment to see what people think...
From the pics you can see the definite change from the surrounding LPS illumination, and certainly the perceived light levels are higher- whether they actually are, I don't know. These 3 lights are significant, because as far as I've seen this is the first time a (short) stretch of main road in this area has been lit with MH. Let's hope there's more to come...
