NEW HIMAST AREA LIGHTING from Indal WRTL’s i-MasT™ division has been installed on the busy Arboretum junction of Walsall’s road scheme upgrade, providing glare and light spill free illumination for safe use of a complex 5 arm traffic signal controlled junction.
Andrew Hart, Assistant Network Manager for Amey, who are installing the rest of the street lighting for the road system as a sub-contractor to NorWest Holst, commented: ”The installation was completely managed by the i-MasT™ team, and I have never seen such a complex job go in so smoothly; the erection of the four masts by giant crane took around two hours. “It is a complex junction, with several pedestrian crossings and involves 58 different sets of traffic control lights. Good area lighting is essential for the safety and confidence of both drivers and pedestrians. Having the whole job manufactured and installed by a team as practised and experienced i-MasT has meant the project went very well from start to finish. The i-Mast lighting is designed for easy maintenance at ground level, so that, despite the height of the masts, running costs will be low.
” Councillor Anthony Harris, Walsall Council cabinet member for highways, said that the lights have proved to be a landmark. He said: “They are massively impressive and have already become something of a landmark for drivers. Why did we have four large lights? Simple. We wanted to cut down on clutter and having four large lights meant avoiding having a forest of conventional street lights.
” Elizabeth Thomas, Public lighting PFI manager for Walsall added: ”The original lighting scheme for Town Centre Transport Package was designed in 2003. The brief to the designers specified high degrees of light spillage control and freedom from glare, good uniformity as well as good energy efficiency. The final design specified WRTL as their scheme proved to comply with the brief with added advantages of the use of mostly recyclable material. This has been incorporated by NorWest Holst and Amey were able to award the supply and installation contract for the high masts to WRTL through competitive bidding that included re-design and variations charges.” The i-MasT installation comprised four 30 metre high aluminium masts, with five 400W SON-T Arc lanterns on each. The complete on-site fit up and installation of the lighting and masts took two days, without needing to close any roads.
Use of Arc lanterns enabled the design to match the normal Arc street lighting designs for this phase of the contract. i-MasT offers a comprehensive range of products, services and support from one point of contact, from lighting scheme design, installing completely new projects with unique high mast systems to maintenance of existing facilities to ensure they continue optimum performance. Installation and maintenance call-out services enable clients up and down the UK to operate their critical lighting installations economically and to the highest safety and security standards, including major port authorities, retail parks and motorway operators. i-MasT is staffed by mobile teams of highly experienced engineers, backed by the resources of WRTL, one of the UK’s leaders in exterior lighting.
WRTL’s stylish Arc has specially designed, high performance optics offering excellent uniformity, a key factor in any lighting design.In addition, Arc has double ingress protection with the entire body sealed to IP66 and the optic sealed separately. In order to avoid any potential for a build-up of condensation after lamp heating and cooling, both compartments feature controlled breathing technology (CBT). Safe access to the inside of the body is assisted by an auto-disconnect facility. Arc‘s aluminium castings utilise WRTL’s long experience in marine lighting where long, corrosion-free life is paramount. In addition, Arc is almost completely recyclable to meet future recycling requirements, making it future proof from this perspective.
29 August 2008