Flooded Ground Box Demo

We were called out to Ashland Ave in Baltimore, MD, after a report came in about three flagpole up lights that had stopped working—one for the Maryland flag, one for the American flag, and one for the Baltimore flag. What started as a basic troubleshooting call quickly turned into a full drainage and demolition effort after we discovered a severely flooded underground utility vault.

Upon arrival, we opened the ground box to inspect the lighting connections. Inside, we found standing water that had filled the vault roughly halfway. The water was stagnant and clearly had been sitting for a while, though based on the layout, it seemed this vault may have drained properly at one point in the past.

Three separate LED drivers—each housed in its own enclosure—had been installed underground to power the lights for each flag. All three boxes were completely filled with water and sediment. The interior of each box told the same story: rust, corrosion, and a total loss of the internal electronics.

Despite the flooding, the wiring remained hot and fully intact, which meant power was still being delivered to the vault—highlighting just how important it was to de-energize everything before the demo began.

We safely removed all three LED driver boxes and drained the vault completely. While the original equipment was unsalvageable, the wiring itself was still in usable condition. No permanent replacement has been made yet, but the site is now cleaned and prepped for the next phase.

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