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Curious About Time It Takes To Repair Citgo Sign

Curious About Time It Takes To Repair Citgo SignWBZ

This week, a Boston landmark will go dark.

It is a spot as well known as the Pru, the Hancock Tower and the State House… It's the Citgo sign, and workers are about to start changing its lights.

Shane in Leominster Declared His Curiosity:

"Why (does) it take a month to replace light bulbs on the Citgo sign?"

As David Wade explains, it's more complicated than you think.

Before you ever smell the peanuts and cracker jacks, you see it… the Citgo sign.

The sign sits high atop Kenmore Square, a couple of Big Papi homers away from Yawkey Way.

Most everyone knows the Citgo sign, but no one knows it better than Martin Foley. His own sign sits just below the Citgo sign, almost like an autograph, and why not… Foley has been fixing it since 1965. "It's kind of your little baby. You don't want anything to happen to it."

Under Foley's watch, workers are giving the Citgo a two-month makeover. Nine-thousand feet of new LED lights are being installed in the sign – that's no small task.

The Citgo sign is 23 feet taller than the Green Monster, and for now, the lights are out.

Sox fan Oscar Price will have to find another landmark to get him to Fenway Park. "I remember when I was younger, getting ready to go to the Sox game, I knew I was getting closer when I saw the sign."

Superstitious Red Sox fans might think the un-lit Citgo sign means lights out for our World Series hopes, but some say it just might turn things around.

But Foley says if the Red Sox aren't able to put up another banner, don't blame him. "It's supposed to be on for the playoffs, if they make it. I hope they do."

Not only will the new lights be more environmentally sound, they're also designed to flex, so they can withstand high winds.

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