Holophane bollards light the way for bats

Working closely with Gwynedd CC Street Lighting Department and specialist bat ecologists Greena Ecological Consultancy, Holophane Europe has devised a lighting scheme to help protect a population of Lesser Horseshoe bats against possible injury from passing traffic.

The recently completed A487 Llanwanda to South of Llanllyfni Improvement passes close to the roost of Lesser horseshoe bats at Glynllifon, south of Caernarfon, which is the most important known breeding site for the species in Europe. The Welsh Assembly Government Transport Directorate has sought advise of its specialist ecological consultants and the Countryside Council for Wales to mitigate the potential impact on the bat population by diverting their their flights under the road.

The solution was to use lighting to encourage the bats to fly under a nearby bridge that was built as part of the road scheme, thus discouraging them from crossing the road. Initially, a temporary lighting scheme was created using a generator to power 198 60W GLS lamps spaced 1.5 metres apart. However, while effective, this scheme was expensive to fuel and was visible and distracting to motorists.

The permanent solution supplied by Holophane uses 62 Denver single sided bollards with I8W compact fluorescent lamps spaced 10 metres apart, linked to the street lighting. Not only has this reduced the installed electrical load from 11.88kW to 1.67kW, it is also no longer visible to road users. In addition, maintenance costs are reduced as there is no longer a need for an operative to switch the lighting twice a day and the fluorescent light sources have a much longer life.