The Ringling Bridge lighting features prominently in the homes of many of those on the west side of GGP. Those lights were originally designed to be a bright white highlighting the architecture of the bridge. When the original lights rusted, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) installed LED spotlights with a stock program of rotating colors. We learned that those LED spots can't produce a bright white lighting design.
During the pandemic, the bridge lights were changed to patriotic colors. When the Tampa Skyway bridge was ordered to end the patriotic color display, the Ringling Bridge was ready for a change. The colors are now turquoise and deep blue, although the timing needs tweaking. Here's the background about how that lighting design was selected and put in place.
In the fall of 2019 the GGPA polled its members and the vast majority did not like rotating colors and wanted fixed colors without reds, oranges, and kelly greens. Almost 40% of those responding wanted white, and most of the others wanted sea or sky colors. We engaged the services of a lighting designer for a local theater arts company. This idea to consider a local designer from our arts community came from Bob Sohol (The Phoenix, 136 GGP) and Tom Dowdy (Visa Bay Point, 128 GGP).
The lighting designer obtained information about the equipment on the bridge from FDOT and then created a palette with stable, very pale turquoise and deep blue. We submitted a proposal to the City, and were told that the pale turquoise was not as vibrant as they had hoped to see. We then submitted a second proposal with a deeper, more vibrant turquoise. The City administration found this acceptable.
The design calls for the lights to go on 30 minutes after sunset, at which time the lights fade for 15 seconds to “Sea Turquoise”. At midnight, there is a 60 second crossfade to “Steel Blue”. Ninety minutes before sunrise there is a 15 second crossfade to “Sea Turquoise” again. Thirty minutes before sunrise there is a 15 second fade out and the lights are off for the day.
What you may not notice is that the design calls for the lighting to be more intense toward the middle of the bridge, and less intense on the piles closer to the shore. This is to give an even appearance. There are lights on both sides of each of the piles, and the lighting proposal for each set of lights has a different intensity so that it looks evenly lighted regardless of what side you’re looking from.
There are presently 4 patriotic days scheduled to return to the red, white and blue design. The great majority of GGP residents liked the patriotic display a lot, in part because it was comforting and meaningful during the pandemic and also because it ended the color rotation that people disliked.
It is no easy matter to change the Ringling bridge lighting. The Skyway Bridge lighting is controlled from an FDOT office far away from the bridge. The Ringling Bridge lighting requires a computer specialist to go into the bridge itself (under the roadway) and to change the program from within the bridge. The State does not want to have to make many changes to this program because it's so labor intensive.
The City administration, including the City Manager’s and City Engineer’s office, as well as the FDOT representative, helped to make this change. It’s a compromise that appeals to many people and arises out a community consensus.
