The Bolte Bridge is one of the largest balanced cantilever bridges in Australia and forms part of the CityLink system of toll roads and spans Melbourne’s Yarra River. A new Anolis LED lighting system was installed to illuminate both sides of the bridge, creating endless colour schemes for special cultural and sporting events happening in the city. The environmental beneﬁts and cost savings achieved in this project stands as a great example of how to replace ‘out of date’ lighting installations with new economic and sustainable solutions.

Project Details

180x Anolis ArcPad™ 48 Integral fixtures make up a major part of the extensive new LED lighting system illuminating the entire Bridge. The system has the potential to create endless shades of colour and hues, which can be used to create a visual aura to enhance cultural or sporting events happening in Melbourne.

The old lighting system on the bridge, built in 1999, was reaching the end of its life, so there was an opportunity to enhance the lighting and to reduce energy consumption to a minimum. Following the successful relighting of the city’s Red Sticks outdoor sculpture, contractor Transurban was happy to once again utilise Anolis fixtures in the new design for the bridge lighting scheme.

The ArcPad™ 48 Integral fixtures were chosen for a series of important factors. Initially it was the high lumen output to physical size that made the fixture suitable for the project, but also the high IP67 rating that was essential for such a mounting location on a high bridge where maintenance access is exceedingly difficult.

The low power consumption of the fixtures was also extremely important as the iconic structure is particularly famous as it lies right in the heart of Melbourne and is seen by a huge number of people every night and therefor needed to be as energy efficient as possible.

Since the completion of the new system, Transurban have reported a huge 89% reduction in energy use, when operating this efficient system over previous technology. The new lighting system also opens up the possibility for colour changing, allowing the bridge to be lit in a variety of colour schemes in order to mark cultural events, special calendar dates.