EP Electric examining faulty street lamps Downtown

The vintage-styled street lamps found throughout Downtown are not working and ABC-7 is learning this has been an ongoing issue.

In video recorded Thursday night, motorists can be seen trying to exit the underground Abraham Chavez Theater parking lot towards the south, along San Antonio Street.

You can tell the power isn’t out from the floodlights on nearby buildings and traffic signals appear to working. The street lamps are not on and the intersection was very dark.

“We’ve had like no lights pretty much for at least a month now. Like, at nighttime, we’re still open. Most other shops are closed, and it’s just dark outside,” said Mitchell Dean, a tattoo artist at Golden Goose Tattoo on El Paso Street, a couple of blocks from the theater. “Definitely is kind of hurting our business. Because I mean, it looks really dark downtown. A lot of people don’t like going downtown as is, let alone when it’s almost jet black outside, walking by themselves to their car and what not.”

Dean has seen what a lack of lighting has meant for his business. Some of the people ABC-7 spoke with had not noticed a problem. But others around the downtown and Union Plaza area say sometimes the old-fashioned streetlights just don’t seem to be working, particularly since road construction and the trolley project have gotten underway.

“I’ve heard things, I’m not really sure if it’s true,” Dean said. “Some of them say it’s that – it’s that trolley car they’re putting in?”

ABC-7 reached out to Paso Del Norte Track Works, the contractor building the trolley route for the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority about the problems. A spokesman initially said they hadn’t hit any underground lines that could cause this problem. In addition, El Paso Electric reported it was not experiencing any outages in the area, and that the street lights themselves are managed by the city of El Paso.

Friday, both Paso Del Norte and El Paso Electric were sending crews to double check if there are any problems being caused by the construction, though a full investigation likely wouldn’t be done until next week.

“We’re just really hoping it gets fixed soon, before we start seeing like it making the drastic change,” Dean said.

ABC-7 reached out to the city streets department as well. A spokeswoman said they would have to investigate further. She added that if anyone has lighting issues in their area, they should file a report by calling 3-1-1.

Additionally, the Paso Del Norte Track Works spokesman said if you do see problems or think you’ve been impacted by the trolley project, you can contact them at 844-252-RAIL (7245).