Bridge lighting illuminates our nation’s roadways to help safely guide travelers across, under, and over their spans. It also serves as a form of art, decorating a skyline and sometimes even serving as a memorable icon for a city. As a majority of the nation’s bridge stock ages, maintenance, updates, and sometimes even replacements become imperative in order to keep our bridges in a state of good repair. Lighting upgrades not only provide enhanced safety for travelers, but can also boost energy efficiencies, as well as improved aesthetics.

The current Trenton Makes Bridge, more formally named the Lower Trenton Toll Supported Bridge, has spanned the Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania since 1929 and bearing the iconic message “TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES” in bright red neon since 1935. Recently, the historic sign received a major upgrade with the replacement of its neon tubing for LED elements. The LED lighting system upgrade will allow for a more dependable light source, be energy efficient, and less costly in the long run for maintenance and upgrades. The LED upgrade also allows the color of the letters to be changed from red to any other color of the spectrum. This will provide opportunity to sync the color of the iconic message with the colors of holidays and local or national events.

Urban was pleased to provide construction management and inspection services for the overhaul of the iconic sign attached to the toll-supported bridge. The firm’s responsibilities included the oversight of the construction management and inspection staff who were responsible for monitoring the project schedule and documenting progress; chairing progress meetings and preparing meeting minutes; making recommendations for problem resolution; tracking submittals and correspondence.

For more background on the project, check out this video by IBEW: