Hundreds of streetlights are out across Houston, but who’s in charge of fixing them?

Across the city, hundreds of overhead streetlights meant to illuminate major roadways are dark — leaving motorists navigating in potentially dangerous conditions.

HOUSTON — For many Houston drivers, it only takes one nighttime trip on a dark freeway to realize something’s wrong. Across the city and Harris County, hundreds of overhead streetlights meant to illuminate major roadways are dark — leaving motorists like Trevor Goodchild navigating in potentially dangerous conditions.

“Lights still out,” Goodchild said. “Absolute darkness on that stretch of road.”

That stretch of the Hardy Toll Road, between the 610 North Loop and Crosstimbers Street, is just one of more than 300 lighting repair requests to the City of Houston that are more than a year old, according to data KHOU 11 Investigates obtained through an open records request.

“Someone needs to get out there and figure out what’s going on,” Goodchild said of the lingering outages.

So, who’s responsible for keeping these lights on? For neighborhood streets, CenterPoint Energy handles maintenance. But for major freeways, responsibility gets murky.

A TxDOT spokesperson said the state agency doesn’t own the high mast lights on that section of the Hardy Toll Road. Houston Public Works Director Randy Macchi claimed they are TxDOT-owned, but his department is responsible for maintaining them since they are within city limits.

However, when KHOU 11 Investigates requested a list of all lights the City of Houston operates and maintains, the Hardy Toll Road section is nowhere to be found.

The 1,924 lights that are listed are all labeled “to be verified,” raising questions about whether Houston Public Works even knows what lights it’s supposed to maintain.

“We have this list of almost 2,000 entries, all (listed as) ‘to be verified’? I have no clue what that means,” Goodchild said. “Does anybody know what that means?”

In one email exchange obtained by KHOU, even a deputy director with Houston Public Works asked: “What is this ‘to be verified’ about?”

“It’s just madness,” Goodchild said. “That’s the word I would use — madness.”

As for what TxDOT owns, the agency initially said it had no records when KHOU 11 Investigates filed an open records request for a lighting inventory and maintenance log: “TxDOT has reviewed its files and determined there are no responsive documents.”

When we asked the agency to double-check, TxDOT once again said “there are no available documents to satisfy your request.”

After follow-up calls to both the Houston and Austin offices, TxDOT later produced an inventory list. KHOU 11 Investigates hit the road and found more than 80 lights out in north Harris County alone, about half of them along the Grand Parkway between Highway 290 and the Eastex Freeway.

“Obviously, somebody needs to come check it out,” driver Eric Carter said. “It could be a dangerous situation. People zip up and down through here pretty quick.”

TxDOT initially agreed to an interview and then abruptly cancelled. In a statement, an agency spokesperson said a preliminary review of those locations revealed some lights are in new construction areas and waiting to be energized, while other repairs are due to a rash of copper thefts.

The City of Houston declined to go on camera. In a statement, Macchi said there is no problem with the city verifying what it owns, but added that the city is “executing a data verification program” that is a work in progress.

As for the slow repairs, the city cited a shortage of electricians, copper wire theft and supply chain issues for available parts.

A CenterPoint Energy spokesperson said the company owns and maintains about 180,000 streetlights within the City of Houston on a combination of residential high-traffic streets.

CenterPoint’s goal is to complete simple repairs within three business days and more complex issues involving cable damage or pole damage, within 15 business days.

If a streetlight is not functioning in your neighborhood, the CenterPoint spokesperson said residents should locate the six-digit number on the pole and call 713-207-2222, or submit a request through its Street Light Outages page on the company website.

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