High Mast light pole refurbishment – National Capital Authority


JRC Electrical Services was awarded the National Capital Authority (NCA) High Mast Light Pole Refurbishment on 16 December 2019 as a great way to end the year.

As part of an impressive team effort, there had already been significant design work led by GHD (Superintendent), Webbs Australia (Lighting & Electrical Design), and John Skurr (Structural). The design brief was to refurbish the poles and lights to give them another 40-year life span. 

JRC worked with the NCA on this significant project to basically pick the poles up, move them to a traffic-free work zone, remove the old fittings, sand back debris, and paint existing high mast lights located along Parkes Way, Commonwealth Avenue, Flynn Drive, Kings Avenue and Bowen Drive. The project also included the installation of two new poles that had been removed as the lights were originally erected in the late 1960s. 

The process involved ensuring current safety designs and standards were being met, with 15 existing light poles to be demounted and inspected – with our engineering team (Sellicks) checking the footings for suitability to meet the 40-year design brief. The 45 ageing Metal Halide light fittings and unique cowlings were replaced with new energy efficient LED light fittings – each hand-manufactured to match the existing style.

All of the pole manoeuvring for the large poles required a 70-tonne crane and well as a 20-tonne franner crane. JRC minimised disruption to the community and services like Transport Canberra’s Rapid Link bus by undertaking works at night between 3am and 7am and managing temporary road closures. All this work was undertaken after hours and early mornings in Canberra’s winter, taking a big commitment from our team.

In April, with the project on track to meet its program deadline, JRC tendered and was awarded Stage 2 of the High Mast Project, which involved installing all new supply cabling to so that the NCA High Mast lights were separated assets from Evo Energy and TCCS electrical supplies. The team removed the old cabling and installed conduiting, pits and cable for all the high mast poles from new supply points – totalling  approximately 5 km of new conduit and cabling. Led by Dean Crapp, our senior project manager, the delivery team handed over all aspects of the project to high praise from our client.