A38 / A516 - Mickleover to Kingsway

In late 2024, I noticed on the One.Network site that there were overnight road closures planned on the A38 between the Findern Interchange and Kingsway (Grand Canyon) roundabout in February 2025, with "Electrical works" given as the explanation for the road closures, while "Upgrades to lighting columns" was the description given for the proposed diversionary route. Prior to this work being completed, all lighting columns and cable networks within the affected area were subjected to overnight testing, to ensure that all were safe, and acceptable, to continue in service with new lanterns fitted - the infrastructure being approximately 30 years old by then, and installed as replacements for 135 and 180 Watt SOX lanterns. This work would see the complete abolition of the Thorn Pilote T2 lantern in Derbyshire, along with a heavy reduction of the Philips 'Trafficvision' SGS 306. While both products are rather polarising in the enthusiast community (especially the Pilote), the fact that lanterns that were once the mainstay of these two major roads in Derby are now being replaced is an event worth marking. Owing to the works involving road closures, the official diversion routes, along with information explaining the reason for the closures, was provided by the Derby Telegraph website; a copy of the article can be read here.

The relighting didn't stop at Kingsway, as things turned out; it continued beyond this junction, and will probably go right up to where the A38 lighting stops at Little Eaton (work is in progress currently). Thus, the lanterns installed in the late noughties from Markeaton to Little Eaton would be likely to be be replaced ultimately too.

A convenient footpath link between Littleover's Havenbaulk Lane and Allan Avenue passes alongside the slip road that links the southbound A38 to the westbound A516. The Pilotes are pictured in their final days of installation, on the 9th February 2025.

Looking back east, more Pilotes are seen heading back down to the A38. Although somewhat maligned, the lanterns proved reliable, with only occasional replacements having occurred in their 30 year history. The biggest faults with these were the plastic bowl hinges and/or clips breaking, causing the bowls to fall away. In some cases, the canopies would become detached, leading these to blow away in blustery weather. Generally, the lamp control gear employed produced few faults over the years.

Looking back west, more single-armed examples are seen along the grass verge, prior to both carriageways coming together a little further along.

The Urbis ZX3 at the end of the left-hand row of single-arm columns must have been a fairly early casual replacement. I remember it having a cycling high pressure sodium (SON) lamp in the early 2000s, while the lamps in the remaining Pilotes appeared to have colour-shifted from the standard 'golden' appearance of a healthy SON, to more of a salmon pink at the time. A later bulk-change saw all of these issues resolved. Only a few of the double-arm columns remained fitted with SON lanterns after the night of the 11th February 2025; everything from the Derbyshire border going east had received a new lantern. The remainder of the double-arm columns, along with all single-arm columns on the section of road leading onto the A38, had their lanterns changed the following night. The foreground single-arm columns, leading onto the A516 from the A38, were in place on the 14th February, but had gone by the 17th.

By the time that the photographs were taken, the march of progress had seen all columns from the Findern Interchange up to a point slightly north of the bridge fitted with new Philips 'Luma gen2 Medium' BGP 704 148 Watt LED lanterns already.

Each of the new lanterns is fitted with a Datek control node.

The new lanterns stopped five columns north of the bridge at the time.

Meanwhile, the smaller T1 Pilote lanterns running a 50 Watt SON lamp that were employed to provide overnight illumination to each section of lighting's feeder pillar, as well as a support for the group-control photocell, are to remain. As I understand it, the cells will still switch the new lanterns, although I am uncertain at present as to whether the existing group-control wiring is altered in the feeder pillar, owing to the use of the Datek controls.

The western side of the A516 is on the boundary of National Highways and Derbyshire County Council ownership, with the border being marked by the centre of the splitter between the exit (Derbyshire) and entry (National Highways) slip roads on the 'Woodlands' roundabout. The lanterns on the Derbyshire side were changed to Thorn Isaro Pro-M LED types during 2020. The first column on the entry slip road supports a Philips SGS 203, which would have been another 'early' Pilote replacement.

As the slip road begins to curve, two consecutive bowlless Pilotes are seen. The double-arm column on the right is the first 'Derbyshire' column on the dual carriageway, and also supports two Isaros, whereas the next column left (now supporting two Philips 'Iridium' SGS 253s) is the last column on the section that falls into National Highways' ownership. All of these lanterns also succumbed to LED replacements during the night of the 11th February.

Two double-arm columns still retaining their Pilotes emerge from the trees that provide a natural barrier between the dual carriageway and Mickleover's Hedingham Way. The double-arm column in the centre of the picture supported (at least) one Pilote with a defect to its control gear in later years, requiring frequent replacement of the single fuse protecting both lantern circuits. In more modern street lighting systems, a double-fuse cut-out would likely be installed, enabling the 'healthy' lantern to remain operational, even if the 'faulty' one blew its own fuse.

Moving north to the A38, these Trafficvisions (pictured in 2017) are attached to 12 m double-arm columns. They lit the section between the A516 slip roads and Markeaton roundabout. Towards the end of their reign on the section leading to Kingsway roundabout, many of them were unlit. I suspect that blown fuses in the column bases / tripped Miniature Circuit Breakers in feeder pillars were the main reasons for the outages to exist, although some failed lamps (and gear components too, potentially) would have played a part. In the early 2000s, a contra-flow system existed on this section of the A38 while work was undertaken to strengthen Uttoxeter Road bridge (from where these pictures were taken). The resultant works saw a few of the double-arm columns removed, to allow traffic to cross the central reservation. After this work was completed, new columns to the exact design of their predecessors were installed in place, with the original brackets and lanterns being fitted to these.

I assume that the Trafficvisions formed part of a different phase of the SOX to SON replacement works (I want to say that they may have been slightly later, but cannot be certain of this).

This video was made just before the majority of the lanterns were replaced:

This view is of the same A516 slip road as seen at the start of this page, on the 27th February, following replacement of the SON lanterns.

Notice that the Lumas are fitted with retention chains to prevent the lantern from falling to the ground in the event that the column is struck.

The Lumas are angled at zero degrees, preventing any light spill above the horizontal.

The identification labels attached to the canopies of these lanterns state that the wattage here is 64 Watts; the shorter columns allowing for the reduction in wattage whilst retaining similar brightness levels to those 148 Watt examples mounted at 12 m on the A38.

The LED array (comprising 40 individual LEDs) is surrounded by a black grid, which helps to minimise back spill.

Two QR codes are present on the undersides of the flat glass covers. Just visible beneath the two bottom-right LEDs is the colour temperature - 3000 K.

The remainder of lanterns on the A38 were changed during the week commencing the 24th February.

These too are chained to their brackets.

The labels on these examples confirm the higher wattage employed here.

At the section where the A38 and A516 share the carriageway, BGP 705 'Large' Lumas are employed; as there are likely to be more conflicting traffic movements here, with vehicles exiting the A38 to change onto the A516, and vice-versa, overall light levels are increased to make such manoeuvres more visible from greater distances. The last remaining Trafficvisions on this section, which would have been seen in the picture below, were replaced on the night of the 26th February.

This is on the section that was lit with Trafficvisions formerly.

Irritatingly, the identification labels are positioned further up the canopies on these examples, making determining the wattage somewhat more challenging.

At 939 mm (3 ft 0.96 inches) in length, and being of considerable weight, thanks to the cast aluminium design, the retention chains are necessary to prevent possible secondary accidents involving falling lanterns striking people or property.

Looking back south, these two Lumas replaced the Trafficvisions seen above.

These lanterns accommodate 180 LEDs in a 15 × 12 formation.

The black masking seen on the Medium Lumas is not present on the Large versions.

The lantern changes on the section north of Kingsway commenced on the week commencing 3rd March 2025 - by the 4th, all northbound columns (including double-arms) up to Enfield Road had received new lanterns, but all single southbound columns were still fitted with their original Trafficvisions. One of the columns fitted with a brand-new lantern is seen below.

In another Luma variant, these Medium examples feature 80 LEDs.

The overall 10 × 8 grid is formed of four smaller 5 × 4 grids positioned together.

The next consecutive column along is seen further down the road.

This section is also group-controlled, but the lantern supporting the master control cell above the feeder pillar is not a T1 Pilote, but an SGS 203.

A short footpath leading from a lay-by on the A38 northbound to Greenwich Drive South in Mackworth is home to two 5 m mid-hinged columns. These went through a variety of lanterns in their lifetimes, with the most recent being second-hand SGS 101 'Streetfighter' products. Prior to this, the foreground column supported a Siemens SRL 35 (which was probably the original lantern), while the background column supported a Thorn Beta 5, followed by an Urbis Sapphire 1. As part of the overall replacement work, the Streetfighters were changed to Luma gen2 Mini BGP 703 lanterns.

Out of all of the Lumas installed for this scheme, these footpath lights are unique in that the lanterns are mounted post-top.

These are also fitted with 40 LEDs each, but unlike the Medium versions that include the masking, the lenses here are fully exposed. The lenses themselves are probably designed for narrow beam distribution, however.

The identification label on these states that they are rated at 33 Watts - almost a return to the wattage of the original SOX lanterns!

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