Garda breathes new life into popular Thames crossing
The challenge
We were approached by the London Borough of Richmond to improve the poor quality lighting on the Teddington Lock footbridge, which was coming to the end of its serviceable life. In addition to existing illumination levels being poor, much light was being shed on the river below to the detriment of the local bats and other wildlife.
Clients and partners
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Client
London Borough of Richmond
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Client
TfL
The solution
Our Garda LED illuminated handrail has been used to great effect on the Teddington Lock footbridge that provides a direct link between Ham and Teddington in Middlesex.
Following the removal of the existing 2 sided rail which widened the cyclist route, our bespoke low-level lighting solution Garda, was installed incorporating 78 x 300mm Asymmetric LED modules (dimmed to 25% output). Bespoke brackets were designed to be sympathetic to both the listed structure and the surrounding architecture.
Disruption was kept to a minimum and the busy suspension bridge in Teddington remained open over peak periods, including weekends, only closing between the hours of 9.30am and 3.30pm – Monday to Fridays to allow schoolchildren and commuters to continue to cross the river. This was a particularly important consideration to the local community as many cyclists use the route to continue their longer commute towards Central London (with the next nearest footbridge over 1.5 miles away).
Needless to say, Richmond Council is delighted with the scheme which has resulted in a substantial energy saving of 72%, whilst users are enjoying the higher levels of illumination and overall aesthetics of the footbridge.
" The main challenge was how to reduce the amount of light pollution onto the river, so as not to upset the ecology for local bats, birds and water life whilst achieving good lighting levels and uniformity for the highly used pedestrian and cyclist bridge. With the previous scheme scattering light onto the adjacent water, we [London Borough of Richmond] trusted in the expertise of DW Windsor, who have previous project experience and dealings with the Bat Conservation Trust, to design a solution that focused the light onto the deck of the bridge where required, and uniformly light the full length of the bridge, eliminating dark patches "
Andrew Porter, Principal Lighting Engineer at Richmond