The construction of domestic waterfront economic zones is accelerating, and bridge lighting engineering is experiencing a construction boom, integrating functionality and landscape into new industry standards

Relying on the comprehensive management of national river corridors and the implementation of policies for the contiguous development of waterfront tourism areas, the new construction of cross river and riverside bridges, as well as the renovation of night lighting projects, will enter a concentrated landing period in 2026. In the first half of the year, more than 420 bridge lighting projects will be implemented nationwide, covering various categories such as municipal traffic bridges, landscape pedestrian bridges, and antique corridor bridges. Bridge lighting has officially established a dual construction standard of "basic traffic safety+urban landscape business card", driving the production and sales of specialized lighting fixtures such as bridge floodlights, guardrail point light sources, and underwater supporting light strips. In the past, bridge lighting in China was generally characterized by a focus on traffic and a neglect of landscape, or a one-sided pursuit of lighting effects that ignored waterproofing, weather resistance, and glare disturbance. After years of industry standardization and improvement, the current design of new bridge lighting has formed a unified landing criterion: anti blocking LED street lights are preferred for bridge deck lighting, and light leakage to surrounding residential buildings is strictly controlled. Low voltage DC24V safety light strips are used for guardrail lighting, taking into account night walking guidance and facade decoration. Iconic structures such as the main arch and bridge tower are matched with long-distance narrow beam floodlights to create an exclusive night scene logo of "one bridge, one scenery". In the renovation projects of multiple inland waterway bridges in South China, the engineering party fully considered the high humidity and salt spray corrosion environment near the river, and all selected salt spray resistant aluminum alloy shell lamps with a three-layer anti-corrosion spray treatment on the surface. The outdoor service life of the products has been extended to more than 8 years; The flood season water level change area is equipped with IP68 fully waterproof underwater lighting products to avoid the risk of circuit failure caused by river water immersion. The cultural and tourism attribute bridge deeply integrates regional culture, with lighting colors and dynamic programming incorporating local folk elements. Some pedestrian landscape bridges are equipped with interactive lighting systems, where pedestrians can trigger local light and shadow changes by touching the guardrails, linking with the surrounding waterfront park landscape lighting to form a continuous night tour scene, directly driving the growth of nighttime consumer flow along the coast. In terms of cost structure, with the maturity of domestic production of LED light sources and driving power supplies, the overall cost of bridge lighting has decreased by 45% compared to ten years ago. The solar assisted power supply scheme has accelerated the landing of cross river bridges in the suburbs, and small photovoltaic modules have been installed on the bridge guardrails to store energy during the day and supply electricity for decorative lighting at night, further reducing long-term municipal electricity expenses. From the perspective of market areas, the Yangtze River basin, the Pearl River basin, and provinces and cities along the Yellow River have the highest project landing density, the eastern coastal cities prefer high-end intelligent bridge lighting, and the central and western counties mainly focus on basic safety lighting+simple landscape lighting. Industry research data shows that the market growth of bridge lighting related products is expected to exceed 5.5 billion yuan throughout the year, becoming one of the fastest-growing segments in the outdoor lighting sector. At the same time, the shortage of design talents in the industry has become prominent, with a shortage of composite engineers who possess both bridge structure knowledge and lighting optical design capabilities. Many projects have experienced delays in the implementation of design solutions, which has forced the industry to accelerate the cooperation between industry, academia, and research to cultivate professional design capabilities.