Silver Jubilee Bridge by Arup
Silver Jubilee Bridge by Arup
The illumination of the Silver Jubilee Bridge, which crosses the River Mersey between Runcorn and Widnes, has won a PLATINUM Build Back Better Award in the 2024 lighting category.
The illumination of the Silver Jubilee Bridge, which crosses the River Mersey between Runcorn and Widnes, has won a PLATINUM Build Back Better Award in the 2024 lighting category.
The lighting designer Arup aimed to celebrate the intricate beauty of the structure, with its graceful form that swoops high over the river, and connect it with the community below.
‘We see lighting as a useful tool for placemaking, landmarking, and educating observers. We thought beyond our title as designers to becoming historians and storytellers. Our ambitions were to reflect the history, structural form and details, honour its builders, reduce obtrusive light, and emphasise the structure against the modern Mersey Gateway Bridge upstream’ says the firm.
The old lighting scheme inefficiently flooded the bridge with cold white light, flattening architectural details and causing significant light obtrusion above the towns and on the marine environment.
Arup’s design began by characterising the nocturnal scene, followed by archive research into the bridge’s site, context, and history.
This informed its ‘inside-out’ lighting concept, illuminating the lower and upper chords of the bridge arch with concealed projectors.
Its research showed how the lack of local lighting competition allowed subtler techniques, using low-power luminaires discretely concealed within the structure.
This technique of ‘lighting from within’ reveals all the fine detail of the structure, telling the story of its construction from the foundations to the apex, highlighting textures, and revealing the labour behind every structural rivet which binds it together.
The raw elegance of these engineering features is celebrated up close to pedestrians on the bridge.
From afar, its magnificent form is clearly defined and offers an alternative visual perspective after dusk.
The concept aimed to minimise obtrusive light for residents and its negative impacts on biodiversity and the nocturnal environment.
By integrating luminaires within the structure, the team significantly improved efficiency, achieving over 95 per cent energy savings and a similar reduction in light spill into the night sky.
Normally, elegant white light illuminates this landmark. However, Arup engaged children at Widnes Academy to create their own coloured light show. Through an interactive workshop with colour pens, gels, torches, and large-format drawings of the bridge, they developed a set of colourful concepts. Their show is displayed every January, allowing all the children to enjoy it from their playground and across both towns.
Client: Halton Borough Council
Lighting Designer and Light Show Content Design: Arup
Main Contractor: Balvac
Lighting Sub-contractor: Studiotech
Lighting Equipment: Griven Lighting
Controls: Ecue
Community Engagement: Widnes Academy
Picture: Mike Dinsdale / Midi Photography and Steve Samosa Photography
