Of course, its helical truss design was ambitious but by no means unique, and I've covered a couple of similar designs here before. But I had perhaps underestimated quite how many there were, so I'm taking this opportunity to put that right.
I'm not seriously suggesting that any of these designs are direct copies of any other bridge (with the obvious exception of the twin Happold bridges), but it is interesting to see just how this typology, has appeared, spread, and extended its ambition with ever greater spans.
I've put them in reverse chronological order. Click on any image for a larger version.
Peace Bridge, Calgary, Canada
Due to open late 2010. Designed by Santiago Calatrava (architect) / Stantec (structural engineer). Spans 130m. See my previous post Calatrava springs a surprise for more.
Double Helix Bridge, Singapore
Due to open 2010. Designed by Arup (structural engineer) / Cox Group (architect). Spans 65m. For more details, see Wikipedia, Bentley Generative Design article, and Singapore's URA.
Roche-sur-Yon Bridge, France
Opening February 2010. Designed by HDA Paris (architect & engineer) / Bernard Tschumi (architect). 70m long but I don't know the span. Lots of great pictures on flickr; also see Morphocode, Archdaily (especially the discussion), a photo of the previous bridge on this site, and HDA's Complexitys blog. This one deserves its own post, really, it's by far the best design of any shown here!
Harthill Footbridge, near Glasgow, UK
Opened October 2008. Designed by Buro Happold. Spans 70m. More details from when I visited it.
T. Evans Wyckoff Memorial Bridge, Seattle, USA
Opened October 2008. Designed by SRG Partnership (architect) / Magnusson Klemencic Associates (structural engineer). Spans 42m. More details at the Museum of Flight website, and at modernsteel.com [PDF].
Randstad Rail Station at Beatrixlaan, The Hague, Netherlands
Opened 2006. Designed by Zwarts and Jansma (architects). Spans 40m to 50m. More details at Archdaily.
Greenside Place Link Bridge, Edinburgh, UK
Opened 2003. Designed by Buro Happold (structural engineer) / Broadway Malyan (architect). Spans 46m. More details from my visit.
