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Commercial category

Light Poles and Structures

Wind load, EPA and the ASCE edition trap, for site lighting in Broward and Miami-Dade.

Need light poles and structures priced, or just need to know if I can get it? Send me the project or ask me a question. No charge for a takeoff.

Get it priced786-395-1222

Lumec and Hadco decorative and pedestrian outdoor lighting

Lumec post tops, pendants and architectural roadway luminaires from Boisbriand; Hadco lanterns, bollards, path, step and accent fixtures cast in Littlestown, PA. Spec sheets, lumen tables, the 3000K and dark-sky options, pole EPA tables and the Florida coastal notes. See the Lumec and Hadco page →

Gardco OptiForm LED area lighting

Four area sizes from 7,000 to 147,000 lumens, 21 optics, IP65 and IK08, Zhaga D4i and Interact controls, with the Gen2 spec sheets and the Florida energy-code control options explained. See the OptiForm page →

Poles are the part of a site lighting package where South Florida is genuinely different, and where a specification error is expensive rather than merely annoying. Everything on a pole is a cantilever load in a hurricane county, and the paperwork follows.

Most of the trouble I see comes from one of two places: a pole selected against a wind speed published on an older basis than the code now requires, or a fixture and bracket combination whose combined wind-catching area quietly exceeds what the pole was rated for.

What decides the pole, in order

  • Wind speed comes from the code, and the code moved. The 2023 Florida Building Code, 8th Edition, references ASCE 7-22. Design wind speeds are read from the FBC figures by risk category, or from the ASCE Wind Design Geodatabase. County planning figures for Risk Category II, which covers most commercial site lighting, run around 170 mph in Broward and 175 mph in Miami-Dade, but contours vary within a county and the governing number is the one read at your actual site.
  • Do not use the ATC Hazard by Location website for a 2023 code job. Florida Building Commission material is explicit that it does not support the ASCE 7-22 edition the current code references. It will give you a number, that number will be from an older edition, and a reviewer who checks will reject the submittal.
  • Check which ASCE edition a pole chart was written against. This is the trap that catches experienced people. Manufacturers have published EPA charts against ASCE 7-93, 7-05, 7-10, 7-16 and 7-22 over the years, and those bases are not equivalent. A pole listed at 170 mph on a 1993 basis is not the same pole as one rated 170 mph under ASCE 7-22. Compare like with like or you will hang a compliant fixture on an under-designed pole.
  • EPA is cumulative. Effective Projected Area is the wind-catching area of everything on the pole: the luminaires, the arms, the brackets, any banner arm, camera or sign somebody adds later. Add them all together and keep the total, and the total weight, inside the pole manufacturer maximum at the design wind speed. The base moment is roughly wind pressure multiplied by EPA multiplied by mounting height, which is why going from 20 feet to 30 feet costs more than the extra 10 feet of steel.
  • Construction documents have to state the wind speed. FBC section 1603.1.4 requires the ultimate design wind speed and the nominal design wind speed on the drawings whether or not wind governs. If those numbers are not on the sheet, expect a comment.
  • Material and finish are a corrosion decision near the coast. Aluminum, steel and concrete poles behave very differently within a few thousand feet of salt water, and the base plate and anchor bolts are usually what fail first. See my coastal lighting notes before specifying a finish for an oceanfront site.
  • Anchor bolts, base covers and hand holes are not accessories. Bolt circle, projection and template have to match the foundation that is already poured. Confirm before the pour, not after.
What I can and cannot do here. I can price poles, arms, brackets and the fixtures that go on them, and I will check the EPA arithmetic against the manufacturer tables for the combination you are buying. I am not the engineer of record. The foundation design, the site-specific wind determination and the sealed drawings come from your engineer. What I can stop is the ordering mistake.

Manufacturers in this category

25 of the 639 manufacturers in my index make poles and mounting structures. 3 are mine and shown here, with one of the others for comparison. The rest, with who represents each one in South Florida, are in the manufacturer index.

AmeronSESCO LightingArcluceFRM Lighting and ControlsCMTSESCO LightingUnited Lighting StandardsSESCO Lighting

Not seeing the line you were specified? Search all 639 manufacturers or look up the rep for your territory. I quote lines beyond the ones listed here.

What to send me for a price

  • The site plan with pole locations and mounting heights.
  • The fixture, arm and bracket catalog numbers, or the fixture schedule.
  • Anything else going on the pole: cameras, banner arms, signage, receptacles.
  • The design wind speed and risk category from the drawings, if the engineer has already set them.
  • Finish and color, and how close the site is to open salt water.
  • HVHZ and exterior lighting
  • Sea turtle lighting rules
Send the fixture schedule, the drawings or a plain list of catalog numbers through the quote form. You get a line-by-line price and current lead times, usually within one business day. The takeoff costs you nothing.

Common questions

Can you supply poles as well as fixtures?

Yes. Poles, arms, brackets, anchor bolt sets and base covers, quoted alongside the luminaires so the EPA and the bolt pattern actually match. Buying the pole and the fixture from two places is where most of the mismatches come from.

Will you tell me if my fixture and pole combination is over the limit?

I will check the combined EPA and weight against the pole manufacturer tables for the wind speed you give me, and I will say so plainly if it does not clear. That is a rep's check against published tables, not an engineering certification.

Do light poles need a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance?

Product approval requirements vary by component and by jurisdiction, and the building department for your site is the authority on what it will require. Tell me what the plan reviewer has asked for and I will get the documentation the manufacturer publishes for that product.

What wind speed should I be quoting to?

The one from your project drawings. If the engineer has set it, use that number. If nobody has set it yet, it needs to come from the adopted Florida Building Code figures or the ASCE Wind Design Geodatabase for the specific site, not from a county-wide figure and not from the ATC website.

Related: Roadway and street lighting · Sports and area lighting · Outdoor and landscape lighting · High bay and industrial · All categories · Turtle friendly lighting

SESCO lines I represent for light poles and structures

3 of the 163 SESCO lines cover this category. Any of them can be priced from your fixture schedule.

Ameron · CMT · United Lighting Standards

Not seeing a line? The full manufacturer index covers the whole market, or just send me the project.

Ask me about light poles and structures

Not ready for a full quote? Ask the question — whether the line holds a spec, what the lead time looks like, or what I would put up as an alternative. I usually come back the same business day.

Send the question

Or call 786-395-1222, Monday to Friday, nine to five. If you have drawings or a fixture schedule to attach, use the quote form instead.