Bridge Lighting Project for a South Carolina High-End Housing Community
The client is a housing developer in South Carolina that is building a new subdivision.  The subdivision will have its own country club and private park area separated from the residential section by a man-made canal that is spanned by a small two-lane bridge intended for both vehicle and pedestrian traffic.  We have been asked to design a bridge lighting system that would provide visibility for motorists and safe lighting for pedestrians walking over the walkway lanes. 

Lighting the bridge is a major priority for the developer because it functions as a focal point between the country club and the residential neighborhood across the canal, and effectively illuminating its structure not only distinguishes its particular architectural design, but also provides indirect down lighting onto the canal below.

Because of the keynote significance of the bridge itself, we have been asked to work in close partnership with the architect who has designed it, adding our photometric design expertise to her conceptualizations. 
A variety of highly decorative luminaire housings have to be used in order to compliment the appearance of the bridge itself and also the overall general architecture of the surrounding community (Which is being developed with late 1800s classic Southern motifs).  Up lights will illuminate bridge trusses to make it clearly visible from all angles of incidence.  All fixtures will use energy efficient, pulse-start metal halide lamps to make this ambitious and highly decorative bridge lighting design a cost effective and reliable system at the same time.

Surrounding roadway areas need to be lit with effective street lighting that neither overwhelms the eye nor diminishes the highly historical theme of the development. 
Dark sky friendly street lights will be needed to maintain the elegant theme of the Old Southern motif, and to prevent light pollution from encroaching on homes and into the country club clubhouse.  Up lights will need to be installed on the tops of concrete bridge supports, and step lights will need to be installed on the side of these same supports to light the bridge’s pedestrian walkways.

Careful Photometric Analysis of the Area Leads us to Recommend the Following Equipment and Configuration
For roadway lighting, we proposed 12-foot decorative lighting poles with special optics that distribute the proper light patterns over the roadway.  To light in the underside of the bridge arch, we have recommended glare free, recessed 175W in-grade metal halide fixtures.  These direct a focused luminance upward which is then reflected by the underside of the arch, highlighting its curvature and giving it some style and interest from the clubhouse view.  For the pedestrian walkways, we installed 70W metal halide flush-mounted step lights to cast a soft, horizontal luminance over the sidewalk.

This innovative combination of street lighting, up lighting, and step lighting is intended to reflect like moonlight off the water, and distinguish the bridge as a landmark that showcases this emerging community to surrounding areas and traffic passing by on a nearby highway.