Functional lighting improves flow of traffic and increases safety.
Frederikssund Motorway, Denmark
A complex road layout and environmentally sensitive surroundings constituted challenges when planning the lighting of the new Frederikssund Motorway. But the end result was improved flow of traffic and increased safety.
The expanded Frederikssund Motorway connects the greater Copenhagen area to the town of Frederikssund in the northern part of Zealand. The motorway runs through an environmentally sensitive and especially protected area. Consequently, integrating the road into its surroundings has been particularly important. The first stretch of motorway was completed in December of 2011.
Light Bureau has planned the lighting, including functional lighting for 4.6 km of road with several underpasses, directions signs and a footbridge. The choice of lighting solution ensures safety as well as an improved sense of security, and adds a discreet and subtle identity to the new motorway, contributing to its incorporation into the landscape. In addition, Light Bureau has planned the street lighting for adjoining streets and traffic lights, and developed a luminaire to be used on adjacent pedestrian bridges.
A complex project
The project involved surmounting a range of challenges. The road layout is complex, with many and varying entrances and exits, underpasses and half tunnels. The lighting for adjoining roads needed to tie in with the motorway lighting in terms of visual design as well as technically. Considerations for local wildlife and the natural landscape posed many particular demands, such as strict limits to the height of lighting poles and fittings, adding to the challenge of minimizing costs and energy consumption.
Light Bureau has developed similar plans for several other stretches of motorway in Denmark, for instance on the Motorring 3 and the Køge Bugt Motorway.