How does solar lighting creates safer walkways?
Client Brief
Canterbury Bankstown council’s brief was to SLD was design, manufacture, supply and install certified Australian standard lighting to the refurbished 630m walk/cycleway running adjacent to Cooks River in Ewen Park ensuring we consider safety concerns and the registered wildlife corridor within the walkway.
Assessment
Prior to installation, SLD conducted a full site assessment using aerial imagery, shade analysis, and on-ground traffic observation. The evaluation identified several important factors:
- Shadow interference: Sections of the walkway to be illuminated were completely covered by the tree canopy
- Sun exposure: Other sections of the walkway were affected by shadowing from large trees directly adjacent to the walkway.
- Pedestrian safety: The walkway is in an isolated area running adjacent to bushland requiring strict adherence to Australian standard lighting levels to ensure high visibility and increased safety.
- Wildlife friendly lighting: Sections of the walkway proceeded through a registered wildlife corridor.
Based on these findings, the Australian made SLD Modular Pro solar lights were installed for optimal performance. These were fitted to engineered fixed lighting columns and foundation cages.
Outcome
Following autonomy and recharge calculations the shadowing from adjacent trees was addressed by a balance of premium grade LiFeP04 batteries and utilising oversized, highest quality solar panels ensuring fast recharge. Calculations confirmed an Autonomy of three nights and a recharge of the previous signs energy usage on less than 4 hours of exposure the following day. The 100m section of walkway completely covered by tree canopy was illuminated effectively by the installation of light fittings with remote solar panels installed outside of the tree cover.
The lighting design called for a mix of CCT (colour correlated temperature) lighting to address to the wildlife corridor in the centre section of the walkway. Wildlife friendly lighting below 3000 kelvin was installed in this corridor whilst 4000 kelvin fight fittings was used for the remainder of the works.
All light fitting employed a custom lighting mode of auto ON at dusk operating at 100% output for four hours followed by 30% output to 100% output on pedestrian detection, auto OFF at dawn.
The project was handed over to council within the project timeline with the handover packaging including coordinates of all fittings to enable updating of councils asset register. The project has garnered both positive and favourable comments from council and residents.
“Congratulations to the Council on the delivery of the lights in Ewen Park. They were on last night and it made a huge improvement to the safety and accessibility of the area. Please accept my thanks to everyone involved in the project.”
– Council Resident
FAQ
It provides an Australian-standard, low-impact solution suited to shaded environments and protected wildlife corridors.
SLD used high-capacity batteries, large solar panels, and remote-mounted panels in fully shaded areas to maintain reliable performance.
Wildlife-friendly lighting is lighting set to below 3000K as animals are less disturbed by this level of lighting.
