For its 100th birthday, Entergy Corporation and Entergy Arkansas, together donated $2M to illuminate three bridges in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a new LED lighting solution from Philips Color Kinetics.

With its unveiling ceremony quickly approaching on December 19th, everyone here at Philips Color Kinetics is very excited to see these bridges come to life and receive the attention they deserve. After working on this project for almost a year now, the applications engineers from Philips Color Kinetics are eager to show people the artistic potential that our lights have.

I sat down with a few of the engineers and talked to them about their work on the installation. They all saw the potential in each bridge to become beacons of pride for the Arkansas, specifically the cities of North Little Rock, Little Rock and its people.

The engineers were thrilled with the opportunity to illuminate the Clinton Presidential Park and Main Street bridges, as they had no previous illumination. The Junction Bridge had only functional lighting, but Philips Color Kinetics knew it had the potential for so much more. Using our IntelliPower technology, a new, vibrant lighting system was able to be installed while reusing existing wiring.

The lights on the Clinton Presidential and Junction bridges were intended to highlight their steel gray material and their architectural features. Because the Main Street Bridge is plain and concrete, the engineers saw this as a chance to use the bridge as a canvas, and use color to wash the bridge rather than highlight specific features.

Over 1,300 Philips Color Kinetics fixtures were installed on the bridges by Koontz Electric, including ColorGraze MX Powercore, ColorBlast Powercore, ColorReach Powercore gen2, and ColorReach Compact Powercore. With the ability to address and program each fixture individually, the color combinations for these bridges are virtually endless.

The engineers are currently working on programming a thematic light show that will take place at the lighting ceremony. Be sure to look out for a video and photos after the light show occurs! All those in the Little Rock area are invited to stop by the First Security Amphitheatre in downtown Little Rock from 5-8p.m. to get an up-close and personal view of the lightshow!