Submission #15 CLOSE
ARUP with Falko Schmitt Architects (London, UK)
Final Presentation PDF #1
Final Presentation PDF #2
Final Presentation PDF #3
The proposed new bridge between the East Village and the north shore of the Bow River is a stress ribbon bridge with a landing on St. Patrick’s Island. It incorporates two symmetrical supporting steel arches to reduce the effective span. The resulting slender structure hangs via its deck in a cable-like form between the bridge embankments.
Since the introduction of this rather new structural type (stress-ribbon bridge), a considerable number of stress ribbon bridges have been built and tested successfully. By the help of the arch and a concrete compression link, the anchoring requirements at the concrete abutments will be reduced to a minimum. The railing consists of steel frames with an infill which helps to decrease the visual height of the bridge, keeping it slender in elevation and reducing wind loads.
Being a controlled intervention into the existing landscape the proposal is in harmony with the surroundings and legibly marks the crossing point as a structure of exciting slenderness and elegance. The bridge respects the natural environment setting and is not competing in height with the busy network of the adjacent bridges but stages the Island of St. Patrick as a future regional destination.
The central landing functions as a viewing platform as well as a public space that forms the gate to St. Patrick’s Island. At the same time the platform, shaped to break-up ice, performs as abutment of the self anchored structures, settlement basin and gravity box reducing the necessary foundations to a minimum.
