Newport Beach, CA
Taken July 2008, September 2010, September 2022
RemovedChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), removal happened as late as that date or before
as of 2015-2017
Update Sep 2022: An on-the-ground report reveals all of the following north of the bay is gone. All the series on Irvine Ave, the mercs on University survived until 2015 at least but are now replaced with LED.
It's not so much the lights in the following pictures that are unusual- it's the location. We're not in LA County for a change, this is deep into OC- Newport Beach, well Santa Ana Heights more exactly. This series regulator is located on Irvine Ave at Mira Loma, just NE of University Dr and the following installations are the only ones we've ever found- anywhere in OC.
Irvine Ave is a 4-lane arterial road here, but this short stretch down to the intersection with Mesa is lit with incandescent gumballs run from this regulator apparently. We got there at dusk and parked under the regulator, it went 'clunk' and the series string came on! A great sight to see, especially in the HPS desert that is the rest of Orange County...
11 Jul 2008
There is mercury too in this part of the world...here's a great shot at dusk of the bit of University Dr South of Irvine. There is a run of 6 of 7 mercury here, and if you go from here to the
intersection and make a left onto Irvine then there is more to see.
As you head SW on Irvine, with the Upper Newport Bay on your left, you'll come across a run of a few mercs, and as you get to the intersection with Santiago, keep an eye out. The cross street for these two pics above is Holiday Rd as I remember, and if you get the full size pics you can see some more incandescent gumballs (GE) on concrete poles. Again, this is unusual to see light levels this low on a major road, and as far as I know, there's nothing like this anywhere else in OC, let alone Newport Beach.
RemovedChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), removal happened as late as that date or before
as of 2017
Update Mar 2018: A lot of the series installation here survived until 2015 but most had been replaced by 2017.
This area is bounded to the North and West by
Irvine and Westcliffe Dr, and to the South and East by Galaxy Dr and Polaris Dr- see map below. This is a huge area, and covers most of the Eastern area of the 92660 zip code. The entire area is
either incandescent- gumballs and teardrops, presumanly series, or clear mercury. There are complete streets lit with Joslyn MV-141 'spaceships' and 'mini spaceships', as I recall there were
Westinghouse OV-12 s too. Most of them have coated mercury lamps. The installation covers most of the area on the map. It looks well maintained, so the signs are it's not slated for removal any
time soon. This installation at the time was the only large scale one of its type in the whole area.
12 Sep 2010
A couple of years later (2010), everything was more or less the same. Galaxy Drive, and the mercury post tops still shining brightly.
12 Sep 2010
This is Mariners Drive as I recall, and series incandescent fixtures with teardrop lenses doing a really good job,
Map data from OpenStreetMap
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 Sep 2022
Pic courtesy of Jim Terry (Sep 2022)
Almost 15 years after I took the pics further up the page, some good news for 2022. Whilst all of the lights on the development north of the bay are gone, there are just 2 series loops left in Newport Beach. This is south of the bay, a neighborhood just on the south side of Marguerite Avenue near where it ends on San Joaquin Hills Rd.
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 Sep 2022
Pic courtesy of Jim Terry (Sep 2022)
Some mercury post tops and the mercury davit poles survive in this neighbourhood, but their days are numbered - the replacement program is not far away.