NORWALK – Today, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), Mayor Harry Rilling, Director Transportation, Mobility and Parking Jim Travers, Representative Dominique Johnson, and Representative Kadeem Roberts stood on Chestnut Hill Road in Norwalk beside a utility work crew to highlight the progress of a pilot program to remove double poles around the city.
“These double poles are an eyesore that have sat unaddressed for years,” said Senator Duff. “They are littered throughout the city and get in the way of pedestrians and bicyclists. To have the various wires transferred from the old pole to the new one used to take months, if not years. Now, under this new state pilot program, we are witnessing wires being removed from this very pole in under an hour. I want to thank Mayor Rilling and Director Travers for their on-the-ground support of this pilot program and all the work they do.”
“I want to thank Senator Bob Duff and the rest of the Norwalk Delegation for partnering with the City on the Pilot Program we rolled out last year to replace double utility poles to advance Norwalk’s aesthetics and improve safety on behalf of residents,” said Mayor Rilling. “This new pilot program has made significant progress in eliminating these eyesores and has helped to further beautify our community.”
“Recognizing the magnitude of double poles throughout the City, the Department of Transportation Mobility and Parking inventoried our 273 miles of roadway to get a complete listing of utility poles,” said Jim Travers, Director of Transportation, Mobility and Parking for the City of Norwalk. “This list became the basis for our ongoing conversations with all the utility companies. Senator Duff worked extensively with the City to bring a resolution. We are eternally grateful for the Senator’s commitment and support of this issue.”
The term “double poles” refers to instances when a replacement pole is installed next to an existing pole, but the existing pole removal is not completed. Not only are double poles an aesthetic issue, but they can present public safety hazards and impede pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
The most common cause of this condition is that all the attachments on the existing pole have not been transferred, which can be hindered by the fact that they must be transferred to the new pole sequentially before the original pole can be removed. If all the attachments are not transferred in a timely manner, the new and old pole may exist together for an extended period of time.
Norwalk was recently selected as a pilot municipality to remove double poles. By using a contractor to make all simple transfers on double poles at once in Norwalk, the city has seen tremendous progress.
There were 165 double poles and 267 transfers outstanding in Norwalk at the start of the pilot program on March 31 of this year. The pilot program expects to address all double poles in the next 4-6 weeks.
As of last week, 165 of the 267 transfers (61%) have been completed and and 52 of the 165 double poles (31%) had been completely removed
