The lighting project for the Interporto at Nola

The Thorn - Zumtobel Group has upgraded the entire lighting system of the Interporto Campano in Nola, in the province of Naples. The project is impressive in its size, over 3,000,000 square metres, and in the diversity of the areas involved, ranging from the railway junction to storage areas, not forgetting the lighting for the general transit sections. The intervention required deploying all the brand know-how. As well as respecting the stringent obligations of the commission, such as a 1:1 maximum replacement ratio for the existing luminaires, all the restrictive and multifaceted regulations on workplace lighting had to be applied. The director of Effebi Elettronica srl summarised the key points: "After restructuring their debt in 2019, the new governance of Interporto Campano was able to proceed with the project to modernise and improve the efficiency of the outdoor lighting systems on its site. This involved converting the existing installations, floodlights on light towers and sodium-vapour street lighting to the latest generation of LED floodlights and lighting fixtures, with the aim of saving energy and reducing running costs.

From local to global

Interporto Campano is an intermodal logistics platform directly connected to all the major hubs in the world. Shipments from this location right at the heart of the Mediterranean are prepared for different means of transport (rail, road, air or sea). It also offers storage facilities for goods - including an area designed to respect the cold chain - and a complete system of business support services, guaranteeing its users the possibility of developing their business efficiently and independently. As a result of the Thorn project, the new lighting now makes the spaces more comfortable and safer, and also provides annual energy savings of around 4,000,000 kW/h, comparable to the consumption of a small town. The outdated sodium-vapour light sources were replaced by an all-LED system, with a total of 2,350 individual lighting points including street lights, lighting towers and wall-mounted units. The project was based on an accurate preliminary analysis of the activities carried out in the various areas of the site and rigorously applying the current regulations. It guarantees the plant operators energy savings of over 70%, with management systems that reduce consumption during the hours when there are fewer people around.

Respecting values

With a view to optimising the existing system, typical zones with a specific intended use were identified and the corresponding lighting classes were applied to them in accordance with standard UNI EN 12464-2 Lighting of Workplaces - Part 2: Outdoor Workplaces. The following macro-situations were classified in the Interporto: freight loading/unloading area of the rail fleet, freight management area with vehicle circulation, general road and general purpose areas. In addition to the general standard, Campania Regional Law 12-2002 of 25/07/2002 on containing light pollution was applied, using luminaires with a maximum emission of 5 cd/klm at 90° and 0 cd/klm at over 90°. Standards UNI 11248 and UNI/EN 13201-2 were taken into account for the road system; the internal roads are often busy with heavy vehicle traffic, which is why road class M2 has been considered and class C2 has been used for the points of conflict.

Thorn has always been attentive to issues of good lighting in transport infrastructures and has developed lighting that guides people through spaces, focusing on identifying obstacles and routes, on safety, on visual continuity between areas and last but not least, on choosing products that ensure easy access for regular maintenance operations. "When making calculations about the lighting, we had to take into account the different uses of the areas," continues the Effebi Elettronica representative, "mainly one area made up of roads for vehicular traffic and another for loading and unloading railway terminals with work activities. It was a very demanding team effort, which would never have been possible without the all-round support of the Zumtobel Group and the collaboration between Project Lighting and Effebi Elettronica srl."

A luminaire for every task

Thorn identified three products to address the lighting of three functional areas. ALTIS LED floodlights were installed in the storage area on 25-metre high towers. One of the most interesting features of the product is the equipment with tilting LED modules (+/- 60°) that optimise the design of the installation with a minimum number of lighting points, a key feature stipulated by the client for Interporto Campano. AREAFLOOD PRO floodlights were installed on the 20-metre high towers. They were specially designed for the general illumination of large open spaces with excellent optical performance. These luminaires were chosen because of their compactness and lightness, which facilitates installation/retrofitting on an existing mast with reduced structural costs. Finally, CiviTEQ floodlights were installed on the 8-metre masts and on the 6-metre high wall, which were included in the Thorn catalogue as an optimal solution for upgrading and street lighting. Again, the compactness and lightness of the solution ensures installation in just a few steps and, together with simple and intuitive handling, enables fast and easy operation with a minimum of tools.