DFR KWAKUDI was appointed for consulting engineering services for the design and engineering of streetlights on national route R75, section 1, between km 0,0 and km 13,0 by CONCOR for SANRAL. The project included the deployment of new energy efficiency LED streetlights and associated infrastructure.
A unique problem encountered in certain crime prone areas was vandalism and theft of fibreglass poles. To this effect we designed a unique solution to address the problem.
Secur-I-Pole™ (South African patent application no. 2020/04875) Locally designed and manufactured for protection of existing streetlighting infrastructure. The invention relates to a guard. More specifically, the invention relates to guards for streetlight poles and the like, particularly those manufactured from fiberglass, which are prone to vandalism by thieves, destroying poles at immense cost to gain access to copper cables. Copper cable theft is on the increase globally. In many countries, the copper cabling infrastructure (lights, electricity, telecommunications, etc.) is publicly owned, with theft and damage costing governments billions of dollars per year.
Currently, in developing countries like South Africa, streetlight poles have become particularly vulnerable to this scourge with a movement towards manufacturing them from fiberglass. Over and above fiscal loses, crime rates escalate daily. With the streetlight poles rising from the ground, the thieves simply cut the poles near ground level and push the pole over to access the copper cable inside. Accordingly, Securi- pole provides a guard that surrounds and protects the outer bottom periphery to a height not accessible without a ladder. The project value is R38 Million.