After lightning strikes

The streets will remain dark for several more weeks

The long outage of the street lighting is causing annoyance in Freistadt.(Bild: Stadtgemeinde Freistadt)

(Bild: Dostal Harald)

During a heavy thunderstorm in mid-August, lightning damaged a large number of streetlights in Freistadt. Now the town has received the next piece of bad news: due to major problems with the delivery of spare parts, the lights in the district capital will not come back on until the end of October at the earliest. 

Three weeks have passed since the heavy thunderstorm over Freistadt. The consequences of the countless lightning strikes in the night from August 12 to 13 are still being felt. Although the technical defect in the outdoor pool was repaired within a very short time, it is still dark at night in many sections of the district capital's approximately 60-kilometer road network. And it will probably have to stay that way for a while yet. According to information from the town hall, the repair of individual light points may take until the end of October due to the long delivery times.

Mayor Christian Gratzl.(Bild: Dostal Harald)

Repair costs 25,000 euros
SP Mayor Christian Gratzl regrets the breakdown and the long outage of the street lighting: "We are doing our best to rectify the faults quickly and are working at full speed. Unfortunately, we are struggling with long delivery times for some spare parts, which is why individual light points and even entire streets are still dark." City employees have now checked the entire city area and compiled a complete list of defects.

Switch to LED in 2017
According to Gratzl, the costs for the repairs are expected to amount to around 25,000 euros. The new energy-saving LED lighting is now also seven years old. The conversion of over 1000 lamps cost 1.9 million euros at the time.