New lighting technologies are enabling innovative road-lighting solutions and the visually impressive results are contributing to safer, more efficient travel.
NorthConnex
An underground forest, the night sky and speed lines all shine inside the NorthConnex (Sydney) tunnel - and are designed to make driving the nine-kilometre tunnel a safer and more enjoyable experience. A world-first for tunnel design, the northbound tunnel's forest silhouettes and the southbound tunnels starry skies and speed lines were created to help keep drivers alert and engaged while travelling through this relatively long tunnel.
Transurban partnered with the Australian and NSW governments, Transport for NSW, Austroads and the University of NSW to develop the lighting. The final design was many years in the making and involved driving simulators and a worldwide survey of tunnel users to understand driver behaviour.
The lighting has been globally recognised, receiving an International Association of Lighting Designers Award of Excellence in 2021.
Burnley Tunnel Pacemaker Lighting
The Burnley Tunnel, part of CityLink (Melbourne), is one of the busiest stretches of road in Australia: more than 20 million vehicles travel through this tunnel every year.
The tunnel is much steeper and deeper than it appears, and drivers travel down around 65 metres below the Yarra River, then climb up again to exit. Motorists tend to slow on the climb out, which was contributing to congestion and traffic backlogs in the tunnel.
Transurban introduced a world-first innovation, dynamic pacemaker lighting, to address this issue. This award-winning system provides visual cues - green bands of moving light in drivers' peripheral (side) vision - that helps drivers maintain the correct speed while remaining focused on the road ahead. (The lighting system won ITS Australia's 2024 Smart Transport Infrastructure Award). Learn how these lights are performing.
Sound Tube, CityLink
It's called the Sound Tube but it's not audio that make it a memorable part of so many airport journeys - that's down to the night-time visuals. The colourful lighting installed inside this portal-like structure makes for a striking driving experience.
The Sound Tube shields neighbouring structures from traffic noise along a short section of CityLink, and was designed by Architects Denton Corker Marshall more than 20 years ago. Today's vibrant lightshows come courtesy of a more recent lighting design refresh, created by Electrolight. The refreshed lighting won second prize in the international darc awards' Structures, Best Exterior Lighting, High Budget category.
Lighting up for causes
Some of our bridges and other road features shine lights on important causes - we can light them up in more colours than a box of Derwents to show our support for issues that matter to communities where we operate. Bridges we light up include the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges (Gateway Motorway, Queensland), the Bolte Bridge (CityLink, Melbourne), and the St Peters Interchange bridges (WestConnex, Sydney).
We help celebrate other special events: putting on a purple glow for Swifties heading to an Eras show and getting our green and gold on for the Matildas during the 2023 World Cup.
