The famed Bay Bridge LED installation the Bay Lights is expected to be lit back up again in about three months, which will not be in time for the Super Bowl, but will expand the dazzling illuminated display to both sides of the bridge.

Our beloved (for some), twinkling illuminated Bay Lights display on the Bay Bridge has been turned off since 2023, as after all, some of the lights started breaking right away because the original 2013 installation was only intended to last a couple of years. The weather and wind conditions high above the Bay proved treacherous, and the LEDs required more maintenance than anticipated.

But the organizers of the display Illuminate went about raising $11 million to create a bigger and better version “Bay Lights 360” that would light up both sides of the bridge, with lights on the south face of the bridge as well as the north-facing side. Reinstallation started just about exactly a year ago, and while some hucksters started promoting fake Bay Lights relighting ceremonies, the last year has simply given us more delays and no definite relighting date.

But what’s this? At the end of last week, the website Secret San Francisco noticed a press release from the tourism group SF Travel giving a timeline of when the Bay Lights would be coming back on. That press release was mostly just a mishmash of winter events and restaurant openings and such, but it did contain the very exciting magic words “‘Bay Lights 360’ is slated to debut in early 2026.”

The Chronicle dug a little deeper in their report that says the Bay Lights could be coming back on in March 2026. Or rather, the Chronicle says that Illuminate founder Ben Davis “expects Bay Lights 360 to debut in March,” but also adds that he has “asked the public for patience.” So it seems there’s a chance that re-lighting date may get pushed out a little further.  

Needless to say, a March re-lighting date would not come in time for the 2026 Super Bowl weekend in the Bay Area, which would have been a really nice highlight to all the wide pans the TV cameras will show of our fair city. Hey, where’s Mayor Lurie with the private funds he keeps claiming he’s raising to bolster the city’s image when you need them?

There are reportedly logistical quagmires to getting the LEDs reinstalled, which is why the lights aren’t already back on. The Chronicle describes “wind, marine air, and car exhaust” wear-and-tear that poses unique challenges for the LED installation. And there are lane closures involved with putting the lights back up, which means getting permissions from Caltrans and a whole other alphabet soup of city, county, and state regulatory bodies.

But this 'Bay Lights 360' version will dazzle viewers from all angles, not just viewers seeing it from the north, which was the case with the previous iteration.

“This ‘360-degree’ approach will allow the lights to be seen throughout San Francisco, on Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, and in many East Bay communities, including Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville,” Illuminate says in their description. “And for the first time, we seek to have the lights visible to drivers on the Bay Bridge, creating a world-class, nighttime public art portal into San Francisco.”

Wait, drivers will be able to see the lights too?

“We think drivers will be able to enjoy San Francisco through this portal of public art,” Davis told the Chronicle, saying that this was being done with full safety consultations and approvals. “If we can’t guarantee that it’s safe, we’ll turn it off and call it a valiant gesture.”

So the Bay Lights won’t come until March at the earliest, and even then we don’t yet have a specific date. But it might be a fun homage and coincidence if that date ends up being March 5, 2026. Because the Bay Lights were originally turned on for March 5, 2013, were shut off for temporary repairs on March 5, 2015, and the prior version was officially turned off again on March 5, 2023.

Related: Bay Lights Coming Back On? Organizers Say They've Almost Hit Their $11 Million Goal [SFist]

Image: Illuminate.org