Wieland Bridges the Gap

Wieland Electric have worked with national M&E specialist SES Engineering Services (SES), on the £1.35 billion new Queensferry Crossing spanning the Firth of Forth in Scotland for the design and supply of a cabling solution for the lighting system across the new bridge. The project forms the centrepiece of a major upgrade to the cross-Forth transport corridor in the East of Scotland.

The Queensferry Crossing project, commissioned by Transport Scotland will supplement the existing Forth Road Bridge with the 1.7 mile structure being the longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world and also by far the largest to feature cables which cross mid-span.

Working closely with SES, Wieland designed and created a system to channel power and control cabling for road deck and internal access area lighting as well as the architectural lighting across the new construction. Using products from its RST range, Wieland provided its RST Classic for power to the new Thorn Lighting luminaires installed throughout the bridge deck sections and RST Mini for the DMX control of nearly 3,000 luminaires across the road deck. Having worked with many projects using DMX technology, Wieland were able to design the system so that the power and DMX supplies could not be cross matched. The combination of 122 pre-constructed cable-stayed bridge deck sections and 440 pre-fabricated service modules manufactured at SES’ pioneering project-specific offsite manufacturing facility, Prism based at the Queensferry Crossing site, and Wieland’s structured wiring solution has significantly reduced logistical constraints and costs, whilst reducing the project’s on-site health and safety risks.

Upon completion the bridge will stand 210 metres above high tide (683ft), equivalent to approximately 22 London buses stacked end-to-end. The overall Forth Replacement Crossing scheme is 13.7 miles long and includes major motorway upgrades to the north and south of the bridge. The existing Forth Road Bridge will become dedicated to public transport use, cycling and walking when the Queensferry Crossing, which will have motorway status, is officially open.