Blog: City Blog

Meet the City Engineering Technician Who Helped Bring Decorative Lighting Back to Henley Bridge

Mayor Indya Kincannon and LED Lighting Concepts officials ceremoniously lit up the bridge on Aug. 29, 2024, in orange and white to celebrate the Vols' football home opener.

Logan Haynes and his team are the Engineering Department Signal Shop go-to guys who don't mind getting their hands dirty.

During the hottest stints of this summer, Haynes - a 10-year City employee and one of the Engineering Department's Signal and Lighting Coordinators - could be seen toiling with his crew, rejuvenating the 180 decorative street-deck lights atop the Henley Bridge.

They'd take apart a half-dozen of the non-functioning light bollards at a time, load them into a City pickup truck, and return to the shop. There, they'd clean the components, removing cobwebs, dirt and even trash crammed into the crevices of the fixtures. Nasty business.

Finally, they'd remove the antiquated and broken wiring, parts and reflector plates, install new state-of-the-art LED smart lamp bulbs, reassemble the fixtures, then drive them back to the bridge and re-install them.

It was tedious work, but because of it, Haynes and the Signal Shop are directly responsible for the decorative lights returning to the Henley Bridge for the first time since September 2018.

Check out this video for more details on the Signal Shop's expertise and effort:

The lights - also due to Haynes' programming - can be set to virtually any color combination as a highly visible way to commemorate community events, festivals and local causes.

Mayor Indya Kincannon and representatives of Knoxville-based LED Lighting Concepts, the contractor that manufactured and supplied the new lights, celebrated the inaugural bridge lighting on Thursday night, Aug. 29, 2024. The lights were turned to orange and white for the Tennessee Vols football season opener.

The full schedule of commemorative bridge lightings through the end of 2024 can be found HERE.

"This is pretty cool," Haynes says. "The lights haven't been working since 2018, and even before then, they were only working intermittently.

"This is a new technology, one of the first large installations in the country. The programming of the colors is also challenging, but it's exciting, because this is the first of its kind."

Logan Haynes, the City's Signal and Lighting Coordinator, holds up one of the new LED smart lamps being used for decorative lightings of the Henley Bridge.

Logan Haynes, the City's Signal and Lighting Coordinator, holds up one of the new LED smart lamps being used for decorative lightings of the Henley Bridge.

Logan Haynes, one of the City's Signal and Lighting Coordinators, holds up one of the new LED smart lamps being used for decorative lightings of the Henley Bridge.

Eric Vreeland, Deputy Communications Director, will be coordinating lighting requests from residents - a task he enjoyed back when the original lights were operational.

"It's meaningful to local nonprofits and event organizers," Vreeland says. "If you've given your heart and soul into organizing a festival, or raising money or awareness for a local cause, it's great to see the bridge lights commemorating your event. It says to people: 'The City cares about us and is helping us as we try to make a difference.'"

The original bridge lights were part of the state's $24.6 million complete reconstruction of the Henley Bridge, which began back in 2011. Those lights were powered through DMX cable, typically used in indoor movie theaters; the cable ran through a bridge railing.

Eventually, though, dampness damaged some of the cables. When one light went out, the rest of the string went out - kind of like an old-fashioned string of Christmas tree lights. That became a problem when replacement parts were no longer available.

The new equipment is totally different - Bluetooth mesh, all wireless. Once the colors are mixed and programmed, they can be activated by a password-protected City phone or iPad.

Haynes says the new lights will also be more vibrant. While the old equipment bounced the light off reflector plates, the new lamps will illuminate directly.

"The degree of color saturation will determine how bright you want the lights," Haynes says. Half-jokingly, he adds, "It'll be like going from a candle to a spotlight, if we ever wanted that much."

Posted by evreeland On 04 September, 2024 at 1:53 PM