The New “Green” Morrison Lights Shine Green & Yellow



      As soon as word was out that the University of Oregon Ducks had made it to the NCAA basketball tournament, WLB got a request to display Portland fans’ support via the new “green” colored lighting system on the Morrison Bridge. WLB forwarded the request to the County’s Bridge Shop and, sure enough, as soon as the Ducks were off to St. Louis, the Morrison piers were sporting green and yellow.

"The new lights were a perfect way to say 'Go Ducks,' " said Multnomah County Commissioner Maria Rojo de Steffey. “We'll keep them lit in yellow and green as long as the Ducks keep winning."

The light fixtures which made it possible to project the Ducks’ colors on the piers had just been installed and initiated on Valentine’s Day. The fixtures are energy-efficient LEDs (light-emitting diodes) which require very little energy, and funding for the lights’ operation includes purchasing energy credits so they run on alternative “green” energy.

“We’re proud of our Oregon Ducks and their place in the tournament,” said Pat Egan, vice president of customer and community services for Pacific Power. “What a great way to show the team that Portland is behind it all the way.”

Pacific Power had donated $50,000 for the bridge lighting upgrade as a gift to the people of the Portland region, so it was a sweet coincidence the lights could be used so soon to show community pride.

(See following NEWS story for more information about the Morrison new lights)


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New Morrison Lighting System Up & Running--Efficiently

Gary Wilson Photo/Graphic © 2007

      An eager crowd braved the early evening drizzle on Valentine’s Day to witness “lights-on” of the new fixtures on the piers of the Morrison Bridge. They had gathered at Waterfront Park’s seawall amphitheatre to learn about the upgrades to the architectural lighting system and to see firsthand the results of the Bridge Maintenance crew, Willamette Light Brigade and a $50,000 donation from Pacific Power. And right on cue the lights appeared, first in Valentine red and magenta to celebrate the holiday, later in various combinations of warm or cool colors—and even some rotating patterns that had colors following each other across the massive concrete piers.

The initial funds for the Morrison upgrade came from an anonymous donation given in honor of WLB’s volunteers. Volunteers like Ed Slavin of Northern Illumination Co. who led WLB’s efforts to upgrade the Morrison architectural lighting system. He found energy-efficient, low maintenance light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures to replace the white floodlights and the theatrical gel filters attached to them to throw color on the concrete structure. The 32 new LEDs use only 2.8 kw of electricity compared to 17.2 kw for the 16 previous fixtures, and they eliminate the need for the color filters because the LEDs can be programmed via computer from the Bridge Shop to project a wide range of colors on the piers. The LEDs’ expected bulb life is 8 times longer (100,000 hours).

Another major improvement the crowd couldn’t see from the amphitheater is the new brackets the Bridge Maintenance crew fabricated for the LEDs. They enable workers to swing the fixtures up to the deck for cleaning or replacement, virtually eliminating the risk and high cost of sending a worker over the side.

Paddy Tillett, chair of WLB, hosted the short official dedication ceremony. Besides recognizing various important supporters in the crowd, such as County Chair Ted Wheeler and his wife and baby, he invited all to partake of the hot chocolate and celebratory cake provided by Pacific Power, and he introduced a few representatives of the entities who participated in the project.

Multnomah Commissioner Maria Rojo de Steffey, whose district includes the County’s bridges and who comments officially opened the dedication ceremony, praised the WLB’s “single, simple goal: to make our bridges visible at night”, their achievement of “lighting them sustainably, without draining power from the existing grid,” and of funding the lighting systems with private donations.

Pat Reiten, president of Pacific Power, said, “For a company that has been in Oregon for nearly 100 years, it made perfect sense that Pacific Power be involved with this special project. The Morrison Bridge lighting project is an expression of our appreciation of the city as our headquarters. Not only are we helping give a unique visual gift to the city’s residents and visitors, but we’re demonstrating environmental stewardship with the lighting system’s green focus.”

Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman noted that as a former County Commissioner he’s one of the region’s citizens who knew that the County maintains many of the Willamette River bridges. He also acknowledged former Mayor Katz and her support of bridge-lighting “as a legacy gift to honor the city’s 150th birthday.”

Paddy wrapped up the evenings comments and led the countdown for the flipping of the switch. The crowd was delighted with the various colors Garrett Lang, the County’s head electrician had programmed for their viewing. And they were pleased to learn the lights will be on for a while each evening and for part of the dark morning commute hours—a daily average of 6 hours, but avoiding times that might confuse migrating juvenile salmon!


(See also Legacy Project and Permitting as well as the Morrison Bridge page)


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Miller Paint Donation Sparks Up the Hawthorne

     A generous donation from Miller Paint made it possible to repaint the two concrete counterweights of Hawthorne Bridge—to return the massive features to their distinctive, dark red splendor. WLB, which raised funds to add architectural lighting to the bridge in ‘04, requested the paint from Miller’s and donated it to the County. The maintenance job, done in several hours on a Sunday in July (’06), required lowering the faded and vandalized (graffiti) 880,000 pound weights. (When they’re down the cabin-topped lift span is up, opening the bridge to all river traffic.) Although red is notorious for oxidizing quickly, this paint is expected to hold up longer. It improves the bridge’s appearance by day and by night when the lift tower are lit. Thanks, Miller Paint, for your help maintaining this oldest operating vertical-lift bridge in America!

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Hawthorne Lit Up the Oregon Symphony’s Summer Finale !

      In the fall of 2004 the crowd got more than the usual 1812 Overture excitement in Waterfront Park. When Music Director Carlos Kalmar cued the National Guard to add their cannon fire power to the Tchaikovsky climax he also cued Greg Howell of the Multnomah County Bridge Shop to flip a switch in the operator’s cabin on the Hawthorne Bridge. Newly-installed floodlights on the bridge began glowing. While the cannons roared and smoked, the lights grew to full power. The bridge towers, the elevator liftspan and the cabin that rides it up and down could, for the first time ever, be seen in the evening sky.

(Gary Wilson, Gary Wilson Photo/Graphic)  

     The crowd roared with delight. Bursts of fireworks took up where the orchestra and cannons left off. The new bridge lights kept shining till late that night as they have and will from now on. The system to highlight this beloved bridge’s architectural features is a gift from the Willamette Light Brigade, a non-profit dedicated to illuminating all the bridges across the Willamette River in Portland.

      In her introductory remarks at the beginning of the September 2d concert Mayor Katz had promised the crowd a great treat. And it was fitting that Mike Lindberg, long a supporter of the arts, would explain a bit more about the first-ever “Lights-On” when he introduced the traditional Tchaikovsky piece. While he was on the Portland City Council, Lindberg and Pauline Anderson, then a newly-elected Multnomah County Commissioner, had formed the committee that would become the Willamette Light Brigade.

     After many years of raising private funds and shepherding various planning and approval requirements, the volunteers of Willamette Light Brigade were thrilled to see their efforts made visible. Their volunteer efforts had been capped with a generous donation from PGE, the expertise and enthusiasm of the County’s bridge crew, and, for Lights-On, help from the Oregon Symphony musicians, staff and patrons.

     Paddy Tillett, Chair of the organization (and also a founding member), said that lighting the bridges allows us all to see “a visual focus at the heart of our community that is otherwise dark at night. It’s appropriate to highlight these structures which symbolize mutual dependence of citizens on both sides of the river. Bridge lights show the civic pride of those who live and work here and add a dimension of delight to river crossings.”

(See Hawthorne Bridge for more details about this lighting project and
Legacy Project for information about Burnside and other bridges to be lit.)

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Process Highlights Preceding Lights-On!

• - Funds are Received

       That final and all important component of the Hawthorne project, funds to pay for installation, were released to WLB in April, 2004. PGE had made a donation to pay for fixtures and installation.

   Here Phyllis Oster of Mayor Katz office (who acted as fiscal agent for these private funds) is handing the $60,000 to WLB Chair, Paddy Tillett, while the non-profit’s Exec. Director M’Lou Christ looks on.

     PGE, a power company with a long history in Portland and strong record of supporting community needs and projects, chose to sponsor the Hawthorne Bridge in part because its parent company first brought electricity to the City of Portland over the early version of the Hawthorne Bridge. PGE also supports energy conservation and the use of renewable energy sources and was very pleased that WLB chose to power the bridge lights with “green energy”.

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- And Put to Work

  In turn, Paddy gave Multnomah County Chair, Diane Linn, $50,000 to pay the County’s labor and materials expenses to install the fixtures and lighting system (see Hawthorne Bridge for more about the lighting design).

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-The Agreement is Signed

    Jon, Mike, Ed, Don, Jean, Rebecca, M’Lou & Stan watch on April 9th as Paddy signs ”the” agreement between the Willamette Light Brigade and Multnomah County. The long-awaited agreement outlines the background and conditions for the County’s Bridge Shop to install WLB’s architectural lighting design for the Hawthorne Bridge.

    On April 1st WLB had updated the Board of County Commissioners about its research on generating alternative power for bridge lights –possible but not financially viable yet--and the Agreement that resolved all policy and technical issues raised by WLB’s lighting proposal. The Commission unanimously ratified the agreement and thanked WLB volunteers for their dedication and efforts on behalf of the County’s bridge.

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-Hardware Galore in 2004!

   Seattle's loss is Portland's gain. Willamette Light Brigade's first activity in January 2004 was to complete arrangements with Seattle City Lights to buy over 100 light fixtures, fixtures not needed after all up north, but perfect for the bridge-lighting designs for our central downtown bridges.

    These high-quality BEGA fixtures, bought by WLB at great savings, will be used on our Phase 1 Legacy bridges -- for the whole Hawthorne design, for Morrison pier light upgrades, and nearly all the fixtures for the Burnside design as well.

    Thanks to Ed Slavin of Northern Illumination Co. for giving of his time to handle the negotiations and inventory inspection for WLB.

    See the Legacy Project for history and details of WLB's current lighting efforts.