When I first spotted this today on the L.A. River Bike Path near Griffith Park, I thought:

“Great, the junkies are at it again, digging for those tasty sellable morsels of copper wire. Only now they have a frickin’ concrete saw.”

Then I skated a little farther and saw a different vault situation (after the jump) …
Wonder of wonders, it looks like the city is methodically replacing all the electrical vaults, pouring slabs of concrete around them.

Over the past couple years, the copper thieves basically ripped open the wiring vaults with prybars or simply smashed the sides with something nice and heavy (little more than a short-handled 4-pound sledge would do it) and plunged the path into total darkness for anyone riding pre-dawn or post-dusk.

Now they’ll have to smash through what looks like a nice thick slab of cement – or just use a good prybar again. Unfortunately, the new lids look just like the old ones – cast iron.

I wonder how effective this will be.

Related posts:

1. Who Killed the L.A. River Bike Path Lights?
2. Heckuva job, LABSM – Bike path lights still dark
3. L.A. River Path biketoon, R.I.P.
4. Bike path a losing battle?
5. 4th Annual L.A. River Ride