Memorial Bridge Illumination Date Revealed

For Portsmouth-area residents and visitors who are wondering when the Memorial Bridge will be lighted, they can now mark their calendars for New Year's Eve.

According to the Memorial Bridge Illumination Subcommittee spokesman Jon Di Gesu, the bridge's towers and piers will be lit up on First Night on Dec. 31. He said the Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth approaches will be illuminated sometime in the first quarter of 2014.

“There is a lot of interest and excitement around the lighting of the Memorial Bridge, and now, that the memorial plaque is in position and the Veterans Memorial Park has opened many are wondering about when the lights will go on,” said Di Gesu in a statement issued by Jennifer Zorn on behalf of the subcommittee. 

“We ran into several technical issues when it came to lighting a bridge this large—we needed to tighten beam spreads, account for the staircases and address the movement issues of this bridge. This led us to rethink the position of the fixtures and take a more stepped approach to completing the lighting project,” Di Gesu continued.

Di Gesu said several lighting fixtures will be re-positioned over the next two weeks and lights on the towers and piers will be tested and re-aimed. 

“This gives us ample time to complete the tower and pier lighting in time for First Night celebrations. On the bridge approaches beam angles need to be tightened so that the light brightens the trusses only and there is no light spillage.  These adjustments will take several weeks—so the committee decided to move forward with the towers and piers and add the approaches in early 2014—rather than delaying the complete project. And, all of these changes will be accomplished within the budget,” Di Gesu added.