The California Department of Transportation (caltrans) recently completed an LED lighting overhaul across the East Span of the Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco.
The newly constructed 2,000 foot East Span is designed to withstand earthquakes. In addition to the roadway and suspension cables, it also features custom, optically directed light fixtures along the bridge deck, bike and pedestrian paths, tunnel entrance and self-anchored suspension tower.
The new LED light bulbs, provided by Musco, are expected to use 50% less energy. Over 1,600 custom designed fixtures were installed incorporating 51,000 LED light bulbs.
Musco Sales Manager, Adam Dejong, said:
LED technology was chosen for it’s long lamp life,energy efficiency and optical control abilities. The performance disability offered by Cree’s XM-L LED allowed us to design a solution using custom reflectors to enhance the safety for commuters and highlight the aesthetics of the bridge. Musco was originally contacted on this project in 2008 with a design using metal halide light sources. After reviewing the specifications, Musco declined involvement, as the metal halide technology available would not be the best solution for the application. With the long hours of usage on the bridge, a metal halide lamp would have needed to be replaced every two to three years and the exceptional glare control with excellent uniformity would not have been achieved. Musco worked closely with the design team starting in 2008. During that time, Musco built scaled models and did many tests to ensure the system would perform as designed.
