Internal and external corrosion of lighting columns: a people’s safety problem

The so-called "indirect losses" caused by corrosion significantly overcome the direct costs sustained for replacing corroded structures, and industry and local municipalities are charged for annual costs amounting to several billion euros. The internal and external corrosion of lighting columns, however, is not merely an economic problem: in the last few years, all over Europe, deaths and injuries involved hundreds of persons struck by falling lamp posts. The paper makes the point on the multiple causes of lighting columns corrosion, sometimes unpredictable but most often consequence of improper design or incorrect maintenance procedures, and describes the most updated techniques available for rapid and reliable identification and assessment of corrosion occurrences which cannot be revealed by simple visual surveys, such as internal or below-ground corrosion phenomena. Results of a comprehensive experimentation carried out both in laboratory and on-site on a number of lampposts located both in the urban and coastal areas of the city of Rome are also reported in the paper, together with useful recommendations for the design and maintenance of these components.