News

Oct 29, 2023

Street lights along Burbank repaired, replaced following calls to 2 On Your Side

BATON ROUGE - The evening ride is a little brighter along Burbank Drive these days. The City-Parish says after a 2 On Your Side story in May and several updates about lights that failed to turn on at

BATON ROUGE - The evening ride is a little brighter along Burbank Drive these days.

The City-Parish says after a 2 On Your Side story in May and several updates about lights that failed to turn on at night, changes are being made.

The lights at some intersections that were dark have been replaced with new, LED lights. The city says that the LEDs are brighter, more energy efficient and more durable. They have a higher cost up front but last longer.

Alexander Tardo is happy to see the changes. He's been trying to get the bulbs at busy Burbank Drive intersections replaced for months after driving the road and seeing a problem.

"Some of them all four of them were out, some of them a few lights were out - it was just dark," Tardo said.

After learning of several fatal accidents in the area, he was concerned about the lack of street lighting at intersection with busy foot traffic and lots of cars.

"People getting hit, me hitting someone, not seeing them at night because the lights aren't working," Tardo said.

When the lights were out, Tardo reported them in the city's 311 app. He contacted 2 On Your Side in May over what happened next.

"They're just marked out as closed and they just don't get fixed," he said.

The city sent off those outage requests to Entergy to be addressed. Once they were handed off, the requests were closed on the city's end. It turns out, the street lights along Burbank Drive are not Entergy's to fix - they're the city's.

Now the city knows about the communication error and has since worked to make repairs of lights at Burbank intersections, including Ben Hur Road and Bluebonnet Boulevard. Other intersections still need work. As of Tuesday night, the street lights at Highland and Burbank are still not working properly.

Crews have traveled up and down Burbank Drive several times to replace the bulbs. Recently, they learned that the photocell, a sensor that tells the light to turn on in the dark, went out and needed replacing. Tardo hopes the city takes a more proactive approach to its street lights.

"I am pleased that we unearthed that dysfunction within the city parish about who was responsible for fixing them so I'd like to see them perhaps step up and start to fix these on a more proactive basis."

So that nighttime drive stays bright.

The city says it's had "some discussion" with Entergy and DEMCO about the light reporting process so that 311 requests do not go unaddressed.