Alligators In Subdivision Lakes Motivated Community To Have A New Path Lighting System Designed For Their Jogging & Bike Trails.
Our client was a residential suburb located approximately 60 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Many bayous and streams run through this part of the world, and subdivisions abound in this area. One subdivision was located near a series of lakes located near a walkway that had absolutely no path lighting, street lighting, or landscape lighting of any type.

Challenges Client Was Facing
Although great care had been taken to landscape the area around these ponds and lakes, (all of which were man-made, incidentally), the original developers had not installed any path lights along the trails and sidewalks that meandered through grounds. The city had installed street lights along the road to light one of the sidewalks, but it was not enough to evenly illuminate the walkway, and many portions of the sidewalks and the adjacent trails were pitch black.

This was more than an aesthetic problem. The lack of lighting presented trip hazards to residents who desired to use the trails for exercise at night. There were also reports of large alligators in the lakes. The city hoped that by installing a specification grade path lighting system along all the trails and sidewalks they could recover the usefulness of these trails and provide a safe environment for residents to enjoy their community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Design Considerations
There were a number of unique design considerations that we had to factor into creating this network of path lights. First, there was an environmental issue to take into account. Alligators were not the only wildlife to frequent the ponds and lakes at night. There were whitetail deer, coyotes, raccoons, rabbits, and herons. The inhabitants of this town insisted that we develop a path lighting system that was bright enough to protect human safety, but low level enough so as not to disturb the many species that shared the lakes with humans.

They also wanted the fixtures mounted at a low enough level so as not to interrupt a view of the lake from the pathways. This was probably one of our most eco-conscious systems designed to date, and one we thoroughly enjoyed working on.

Photometric Analysis Software Helped Us Develop A Custom Skate Park Lighting System Unique To This Challenging Environment
Our photometric analysis software proved invaluable in the planning and development of this path lighting system. We had already determined based upon the lighting requirements of the environment that we would have to use bollards as luminaires. The trick was determining how far to space them out. Putting them too close together would create too much light, which would defeat the romantic and sentimental intention of the system. Too little light, and there would be insufficient luminance to guarantee human safety with alligators roaming around in the shadows.

We ended up proposing two options to the client. One consisted of spacing bollards at intervals of twelve feet to provide overlapping path lighting. The other option called for spacing the bollards at 20’ to create spaced illumination, with areas around the bollard brighter than the areas halfway between each fixture.

Final System Proposed
The client selected the 12’ spacing option on the provision we restrict the output of light to the path and sidewalks as much as possible. To accommodate this request, we selected louvered, 24”, low-voltage bollards with metal halide lamps designed for low maintenance, long life, and high output. The light was directed downward by the louvers on the side, evenly distributing an impressive level of light at the ground level only without obscuring the light of the moon, stars, and reflected house lights on the lake.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for call us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including New York NY, Los Angeles CA, Miami, FL. Chicago, IL. Denver CO., New Orleans, La., Cleveland, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo., Mesa, Arizona, Virginia Beach, Va., Omaha, Nebraska, Oakland, California, Miami, Florida, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Arlington, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, Denton, TX, McKinney, Texas, Midland, TX, Killeen, Texas, Dallas TX, San Antonio, TX, Austin, TX, ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.