First LED lighting in UK tunnel

Transport for London (TFL) announced on Friday that the 320m-long westbound section of the twin-bore Upper Thames Street road tunnel became the first UK tunnel to feature linear LED lighting. The lighting system was designed and manufactured by UK-based lighting manufacturer, Indal WRTL and installed by independent mechanical, electrical & instrumentation and industrial contractor, SPIE WHS for Ringway Jacobs, TFL’s highway maintenance contractor.

Some 268 lighting strips were installed following testing procedures and will be monitored for around two or three months before TFL decides whether or not to proceed with further installation to the other 12 tunnels on the TFL Road Network, as well as within subways and street lighting.

The lights will last 20 years compared with the two years expected from conventional lighting. Costs were projected to fall from GBP 50,000 (USD 81,040) to GBP 10,000 (USD 16,208) per annum. The lights will save 163 tonnes of CO2 annually.

A spokesperson for TFL told T&TI, “The tunnel was chosen firstly because it featured a viewing point to monitor the lighting system without closing the tunnel. It is also a sufficiently complex tunnel structure that it will serve well as a test for the system. It also happens to be only 10 minutes from the TFL head office.”

Steve Ebbrell, operations manager with i-Tunnel, the tunnelling arm of WRTL said, “There has been a recent trend towards point-source tunnel lighting, largely due to concerns over energy consumption and running costs. [The] ‘T-line’ [linear LED lighting system] uniquely challenges this, by providing a high quality linear lighting, for a similar cost of ownership and with lower carbon emissions [than conventional lighting].”