Some meat head signed off on a project to install hundereds of street lights along silom and sathorn. The've been there now for about a year but they still don't work. <deleted>?

It's called TEA MONEY.

The same thing was done on Sukhumvit road around where I live between Asok and Phrom Phong. Nice looking street lamps were installed months ago but have never been turned on! Anyone have any info about these things? I haven't read anything about it in the english language newspapers or here on Thai Visa.

Probably Somchai and Terdsak - Thailand's answer to Bodgit and Leggit

Maybe nobody told them they weren't only for decoration

Quite possible the globes, or something else like a switch, was/were not included on the original BOQ, and to get the globes the whole tender process has to be repeated, which if there is no excess money in the budget of whichever department administers that area, could mean a wait of more than a year and a half.

Just be thankful that they haven't been hacked down yet and sold off as scrap by some real boneheads. This is what seems to happen to public lighting attmepts in Pattaya.