Grassroots group wants to light up Perdido Pass Bridge

Grassroots group wants to light up Perdido Pass Bridge
By Fran Thompson
A trio of Orange Beach citizens has organized a multimillion-dollar community project to add decorative LED lighting technology to the Perdido Pass Bridge, with a goal of lighting up Perdido Pass by the end of 2023.
Kate Politz, Tom Clark and Fred Armstrong are the board members of the newly formed non-profit, Perdido Pass Lighting Project, and they have already pledged to work closely with every pertinent government entity to address all environmental concerns.
“The first conversation we had was with US Fish & Wildlife, especially with regard to sea turtles. We wanted their input and direction,’’ Clark said. “The second was with ALDOT to make sure they were open to what we are trying to do and to ask for their input on design. They will both have input and review all the way through the project.’’
Clark said the project will also adhere to all City of Orange Beach lighting ordinances and Coast Guard directives. “Whatever they ask, we are going to comply with and follow what they tell us,’’ he said.
The estimated cost, and it is only an estimate, is $2 million. The first goal is to raise $500K to complete the project’s engineering work.
To that end, the group has recruited another Orange Beach resident, Dave Empfield, who has years of power company maintenance, construction and installation experience with similar projects.
Of course, the board will seek grant money and corporate contributions, but as a grassroots effort, they expect much of the funding to come from locals and tourists donating an average of about $50.
Donations can be made for the project at lightourbridge.com and its paypal and gofundme portals or at any Regions Bank under the name Orange Beach Perdido Pass Bridge Lighting Project.
“There will be different thresholds of where we need to be and we have not separated all of those out, but we need $500K to get started,’’ Politz said. “We’ve put in a lot of work and we are still doing the work to fine tune our message and get people involved. That is very important to us – that we get people involved.’’
Clark said the project board welcomes anybody who wants to lend their time and experience to moving the project forward. He can be reached at 251-333-0346
or tom@lightourbridge.com
“Our first meetings were with officials that we will be working with, including a local expert on turtle safety,’’ Clark said. “From day one, they will be working closely with us on this.’’
Politz, the board’s chief communications officer, said it takes a minimum amount of light to illuminate a structure that is in total darkness.
“We will use state of the art LED technology that has the specific amber color that is recommended by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for turtle safety,’’ she said.
LED lighting is widely known for using less power than traditional lighting and rarely needs to be replaced, providing an eco-friendly lighting option with an extremely long lifespan.
It is possible the low amount of power required to light the bridge can be generated via solar energy technology and that option is currently being investigated.
The intensity of every single LED in the system can be controlled independently, and that control will be in the hands of City of Orange Beach staff abiding by the US Fish and Wildlife turtle safety guidelines, Coast Guard navigation guidelines and Orange Beach lighting ordinances.