The Bridge on Ada spans the river Sava in Belgrade Serbia, crossing the tip of Ada Ciganlija Island and connecting the municipalities of Čukarica and Novi Beograd.  Not only is it a designated landmark structure and one of the longest single-pylon cable-stayed bridges in the world, but the bridge also provides increased network capacity for the area’s transportation infrastructure. After nearly 5 years of construction, the bridge officially opened on the first of the year 2012, boasting 2,256 LED fixtures including 30 Pulsar RGB/LED ChromaFloods for the illumination of inner pylon and tip, and 1032 Pulsar LED ChromaStrips for the underside of the carriageway. The outer side of the pylon and stay cables were illuminated with 236 individual LED-2000 flood fittings manufactured by Musco Lighting (USA). The bicycle/foot paths were illuminated using 958 LEDs mounted in the handrail, manufactured by Planet Lighting (Australia).

Gulf Line International Trading Co., a full service provider of light fittings, indoor, outdoor and custom made for commercial and hospitality projects based in Dubai. A team of experts from Gulf Line International led by Mr. Djordje Zdravkovic worked together with manufacturers and sub-contractors to complete the design, supply, supervision and installation of all decorative lighting. Although the construction of the bridge began years ago, the installation of the decorative lighting only began towards the end of November 2011. Gulf Line Int’l supervised all aspects of the installation of the decorative lighting mentioned above and even carried out parts of the installation. Additionally, they managed teams from the different manufacturers involved: Pulsar Light (UK), Musco Lighting (USA), Planet Lighting (Australia), as well as sub-contractors, DC Energocoop (Serbia).

“”The Client’s initial request was to illuminate the tip and faces of the 200m tall pylon (both inner and outer surfaces) along with the 80 stay cables supporting the bridge connected to the pylon, the underside of the carriageway and the bicycle/foot paths along the bridge’s sides,”” explained Gulf Line Assistant Project Director Igor Djordjevic. “”The unique solution offered by Gulf Line Int’l used only LED fixtures, as requested by the Client, to illuminate all parts of the bridge and in total, over 2,256 LED fixtures were used. Gulf Line Intl’s proposal utilized fixtures from several manufacturers around the world, specializing in different aspects of the project. Using this knowledge, and the fact that Pulsar focuses primarily on RGB LEDs and has a reputation as being amongst the best companies for dynamic color changing LED fixtures, Gulf Line Int’l detailed the request of the Client, and together with Pulsar came up with the most effective solutions both price-wise and design-wise.””

Pulsar’s RGB/LED ChromaFloods were chosen specifically for the illumination of inner pylon and tip due to the Client’s request for the inner faces of the pylon to be illuminated in a range of colors as opposed to in white. Additionally, the Pulsar LED ChromaStrips were spec’d for the illumination of underside of carriageway as the Client requested that a long linear strip be installed that would span the length of the bridge and be bright enough in order to be visible from a long distance. Moreover, the Chromastrip was the perfect fit due to the extremely limited space available for installation under the carriageway.  

“”The Pulsar products detailed above met all of the requirements and the Client was more than satisfied with the results,”” Djordjevic concludes. “”Pulsar offers a high quality range of products with a very high level of service to go with them. They are primarily focused on color controllable LEDs and offer a very up-to-date set of products, which is extremely important when dealing with the ever changing LED technology.””

Because of the complexity of the project, everything was well designed in the initial stages of the project and it all came together without a hitch during the installation process. But there were a few interesting after-effects of the installation to note says Djordjevic. “”The cone-shaped tip of the pylon is made out of stainless steel, it is a bit of an unconventional surface to illuminate as it acts like a mirror reflecting most of the light away. The end result was an interesting and slightly unusual reflection where a single line is seen in the middle of the tip vertically going upwards and erupting into a bouquet of light, giving an almost ‘exploding firework’ effect. And while there is nothing unusual about the way the ChromaStrips were used on the underside of the carriageway, the fixtures themselves formed a magnificent reflection, which stretched across the river Sava’s surface. Also, both Pulsar and Gulf Line believe that this might be the longest continuous LED line in the world!””