<p>This paper describes the structure of a weathering steel footbridge with a GFRP deck, as part of a larger redevelopment of a former industrial area in the City of Bocholt - KuBAaI.</p><p>In the recent past, the requirements on the design of footbridges regarding economic design in combination with architecture, especially in urban developments with limited budget of local authorities have increased. It is the challenge of the engineering process to explore fitting solutions to meet these requirements.</p><p>The footbridge in the KubAaI follows the chosen design concept of a low maintenance bridge by the use of appropriate materials, such as weathering steel for the main steel structure and GFRP elements for the bridge deck, and an aesthetically pleasing appearance. The structure will blend into the industrial surroundings and be much more than a mere connection, it is also a public space.</p>
The small city of Bocholt owns a former industrial area of 25 ha which will be restructured to an urban and cultural district for people to work, live and explore. As part of the new urban development four footbridges with a span of up to 47 m have been designed to connect the two parts of this area which are separated by the river Aa. The bridges form the starting point for the future development and spaces for public events.
<p>The new footbridge near Almere in the Netherlands will facilitate a safe crossing over the Waterlandseweg and improve the recreational network in the area. The slender 240m long steel bridge generates two unique balconies on top of the bridge. The balconies and the shape of the bridge invites the user to enjoy the different views of the surroundings. The paper will further elaborate on the architectural design and user experience. The meandering shape leads to a constantly changing cross section, which was interesting translating to a rational structural design, and for assessing the risk of uncomfortable vibrations and need of dampers for control. Especially the seating area on the bridge over the canal was identified as an area of concern. The paper shows the approach taken and the results of steady state dynamic analyses, transient dynamic analyses and measurements of the final product. Transient dynamic analyses results are more accurate and less conservative than the steady-state analyses, but some deviation from the measured accelerations remained. This project shows it is advised to account for dampers at the design stage when analyses show dynamic sensitivity of the bridge. And actual testing is necessary for taking the final decisions on the need for dampers.</p>
As part of a major renovation programme of critical highway infrastructure in the Netherlands, the Tacitus Bridge at Ewijk, a 1055-metre-long orthotropic steel box girder deck of ten spans, with a main cable-stayed span of 270 metres, has undergone extensive strengthening and refurbishment. Due to the presence of micro-fissure defects identified in the existing lock coiled stay cables and an increase in permanent load on the bridge deck resulting from the addition of a high strength concrete overlay acting compositely with the orthotropic steel deck, it was concluded that the existing stay cables needed replacement. This paper presents the analytical approach developed to verify that the existing stay cables could be removed with no additional temporary supports and the use of advanced non-linear techniques to predict and monitor the performance of the bridge during each step of destressing the existing stay cables and of tensioning the new parallel strand cables.
<p>The time period we live in generates a context in which the bridge engineer does its job. He designs safe, reliable, economical and durable structures for people and goods to cross roads, rivers and valleys. The context in which we do our job matters, for example in the industrial Age the bridge engineer was at the forefront due to big innovations in materials and technologies to design and build bigger and longer bridges. Which helped build the transportation networks that were essential for quick national and international trade and economic growth. In the following Information Age due to new digital technological innovations it was made much easier to process large amounts of data than before. This resulted in a huge optimisation in material qualities, construction methods, analysing methods of forces and forms and cost. But automation, standardisation and the new technologies also changed the role of the engineer from leader to enabler.</p> <p>Today we are seeing a slow shift of the Information economy towards a Purpose economy. The Purpose economy is one in which employees and customers are driven by their sense of social purpose, more so than by personal financial and status gain. Public clients align themselves with global and national goals, like the UN Sustainability Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement, to set the future context for bridge designers to find the best fitting solutions. As bridge engineers in the emerging Purpose economy we have an opportunity to lead again in finding the best fitted solutions, in addition to proving the solutions, for the betterment of society.</p>
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