Bridge panel sheds light on design plans Illumination eyed for Prospect-Verona span

ORLAND – If there is enough money, the new bridge being built across the Penobscot River between Prospect and Verona will have lighting on all the major structural elements.

Participants at the state Department of Transportation’s third design workshop on the bridge Tuesday night opted for the lighting as part of the bridge design.

In separate straw poll votes, the participants signaled they would like to see white lighting on the pylons – the two main towers – of the bridge, on the cable stays, the cables that extend fanlike from the towers, and on the guardrails along the travel way.

The group also chose a light gray for the PVC casing on the cable stays, which will cover the stainless steel cables that support the bridge.

DOT is constructing the bridge to replace the 72-year-old Waldo-Hancock Bridge at roughly the same location. The main cables on the old bridge have deteriorated to a point where engineers have determined it is not feasible to replace or repair them.

Work already has begun on the foundations for the main towers of the new bridge, but all decisions about the design will depend on the amount of funding available, according to Deputy Transportation Commissioner Bruce Van Note.

The bridge likely will cost $65 million to $75 million.

“Lighting is the single element that will provide a simple and elegant nighttime signature for the bridge,” Linda Figg, president of Figg Design Group, the architect for the bridge, told the group of about 40 people.

Tuesday’s group chose from two color options, white and blue, and a variety of combinations of lighting on different elements of the structure. Figg noted that in preparing the options, designers had been guided by preferences voiced at previous design workshops. Participants earlier had noted that very little of the surrounding landscape is lighted.

Lighting designer Matt Darcy said the white light would extend farther out from the source onto the different bridge elements.

“With the white lights you’re going to see the granite, most of the cables and the pylons,” Darcy said. “With the blue light, you’re just going to get the suggestion of it, because you’ve got far less light going up.”

He stressed that whatever choice the group made, the lighting would not be “a large neon sign” and would not be out of place.

Some discussion centered on the railing lighting, also referred to as necklace lighting. Those lights outline the arc of the travel way viewed from a distance, and also light the 5-foot-wide walkway on the north (Verona) side of the bridge.

Several participants raised safety concerns about whether the rail lighting would provide enough light on the sidewalk and on the travel lane. They also raised concerns that there was no necklace or walkway lighting on the south side of the bridge, where there is a bike path, but no sidewalk.

Others, however, warned there is a danger of putting too much light on the bridge.

“We don’t want the Home Depot parking lot out there,” one woman said.

Van Note said the design team could look at options to raise the walkway lighting to provide illumination on both sides of the bridge.

Van Note also said that the towns of Prospect and Verona will not have to bear the electricity costs for lighting the bridge, as is usual DOT policy. The department is considering paying for the ongoing electricity costs from revenues from the planned observation deck for the Prospect tower.

The foundations of the bridge are expected to be completed by early May.

DOT is negotiating with contractors on the cost for the next phase of the project, which will include construction of the towers.

“If we’re successful with those negotiations and with the funding decisions before the Legislature, construction would begin soon after that,” Van Note said. “Everything depends on the funding, but we planned this so that we could go on to the next phase seamlessly.”

DOT officials still plan to have the bridge open for travel by June 2005.