Hills Links Swansea To The Waterfront

Hills Electrical and Mechanical plc has illuminated a pair of spectacular footbridges that link Swansea's new "SA1" waterfront development to the rest of the city.

Hills Electrical and Mechanical plc has illuminated a pair of spectacular footbridges that link Swansea's new "SA1" waterfront development to the rest of the city, and supplied M and E services to a Grade II listed Norwegian Church on the site, in work valued at close to £200,000.

The £200 million SA1 Swansea Waterfront is intended to regenerate the area surrounding the Prince of Wales Dock at the South Wales city.

The development will include more than 1,000 apartments and houses, 100,000sq m of high-tech business and office space, a 120-bedroom hotel, a marina and educational and leisure buildings.

The two new footbridges over the River Tawe to the west of the development are vital links to the Maritime Quarter of the Swansea waterfront, and to the rest of the city.

The 142-metre Sail Bridge is the brainchild of Wilkinson Ayre Architects, who were also responsible for Gateshead's 'winking eye' bridge.

The Flint and Neill Partnership engineered the 292-tonne structure, which has a 40-metre-high inclined mast at its centre, linked to the curved deck by radiating cables.

Working closely with main contractor Balfour Beatty, the Cardiff office of consultant Flint and Neil and bridge-builder Rowecord of Newport, Hills project manager Chris Ogden and his team designed a practical lighting scheme.

By getting involved early in the construction of the bridge, Hills was able to ensure that all the brackets and draw wires it would need to install and connect the lighting were available.

"Fitting the lighting for the south bridge was very exciting," says Chris Ogden, "we were working in the bridge structure from barges." Three pairs of 400W metal halide floodlights from Sill Lighting strike up from the base of the bridge near the concrete pier in the centre of the river, illuminating the support cables.

Specially fabricated columns support the bridge handrails, but also contain a light fitting sealed to IP65.

The columns have a stainless steel frame and a Perspex cover, and appear to glow.

Power for the fittings is supplied though cables concealed in the foot rails.

Aircraft warning lights at the top of the mast are fed by two separate supplies, and have battery backup.

The remainder of the fittings take their power from one or other supply, ensuring that some will remain on if one supply fails.

The second bridge is more conventional, and was brought to Swansea in one piece by barge from Rowcord's Newport works.

Hills installed two hinged floodlighting columns at one side of the bridge next to the Harbour Master's office to illuminate the lock, basic vandal-resistant amenity fittings and a pair of illuminated matrix screens on either side that display local information.

Local electricity company Western Power provided a new electricity main, and Hills designed, installed and connected two feeder pillars for the bridge lighting.

The Norwegian church on the site has had something of an itinerant existence.

It was originally built at Newport Docks, but was moved to Swansea in 1910.

More recently it was dismantled and rebuilt at the heart of the SA1 development, where it is destined to become a national centre of excellence for stained glass, with its own exhibition centre and workshop.

Hills' job was to install discreet M and E services that would not spoil the atmosphere in the building.

It installed underfloor electric heating because, as Chris Ogden says, "there wouldn't have been any heating originally anyway".

Similarly, recessed track lighting among the roof timbers is effective but inconspicuous.

Hills also kitted out a small kitchen and a toilet, and fitted exterior lighting including 35W metal halide uplighters and a pair of 400W floodlights.

Light-emitting diodes decorate the lobby.

Finally, no centre of excellence for stained glass would be complete without an electric kiln, and Hills obliged by installing four at the church.

After working for nearly 18 months at SA1, Hills is currently discussing further work at the site with a number of developers.

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