In the 1980s, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the city of Quincy, Ill.,. faced an interesting problem: The Quincy Soldier's Memorial Bridge on U.S. Route 24 was inadequate to handle traffic over the Mississippi River, but the structure was still sound.
After due diligence, IDOT’s solution was to build a second new twin bridge. While the Memorial Bridge would handle eastbound traffic, a new Quincy Bayview Bridge would be built about 900 feet north of the old bridge to handle westbound traffic.
Built in 1986, the Quincy Bayview Bridge is an early cable stay bridge, at least for such a structure found in the United States. The bridge has 56 cables set up in four planes, with each plane having seven cables on each side of the 182-foot main towers. Each pair of cables supports a 60-foot-long by 6-foot-deep bridge-deck section. The sections were unique at the time, since they were a combination of prefabricated steel and precast concrete. Also, unique was a new epoxy coating on the cables. Both of these innovative features are now commonly found on more recent cable stayed bridges.
Upon completion, the twin bridges easily handle traffic between Quincy, Ill., and Quincy, Mo. Known as Illinois's “Gem City,” on the Mississippi River, Quincy has a population of more than 40,000 people and remains a prominent river city, while West Quincy is used primarily for farming.
Bringing Back the Architectural Luster
After almost 30 years, the IDOT decided to bring the luster back to the Bayview Bridge through a new lighting project. The criteria for the project was to find a lighting scheme that would highlight the architectural beauty of the bridge without creating maintenance issues and energy costs. Three firms–Klingner & Associates, P.C. and Brown Electrical Construction Company, both of Quincy, Ill., and Lighting Associates Inc.of Webster Groves, Mo.,–worked together to develop a lighting program to meet IDOT’s criteria.
After a thorough investigation, Bayview is now highlighted by 78 Dyna Flood QA and eight Dyna Drum HO RGBA luminaires from Los Angeles-based Acclaim Lighting. Using Acclaim’s quad-color technology, the Dyna Flood QA contains four colors, RGB+amber, under a single lens. Because quad-color technology mixes the colors under the lens, unlike traditional technology that color mixes outside of the lens, Dyna Flood QA delivers precise color matching.
The Dyna Drum HO also features RGBA diodes, beam and spread lens options, and a lumen output range of 9,000 to 17,232 lumens at 5500K, along with an adjustable yoke with onboard 180-degree flip inverted digital control display for menu selections and addressing. Both Dyna Flood QA and Dyna Drum HO have an IP66 wet-location rating. With a DMX-512 control system, each unit features an auto-switching, multi-voltage power supply, and an on-board touch-sensitive menu.
According to Joe Knochel, P.E., Architectural Engineer at Klingner & Associates, the design team provided a lighting solution that is very energy efficient, easy to maintain, and meets the IDOT requirements.
