Bridges news roundup

Ok, I've finished my series of posts on the bridges of Rotterdam.

I'll move on next to various bridges in north east England, the focus of a recent weekend bridges tour, but before I do, here are a few news items that caught my eye ...

Pedestrian Bridge / Miró Rivera Architects
I've probably posted a link to this bridge design before, but it's so great I won't get tired of it any time soon (see picture, right).

Olympic Stadium Amsterdam / René van Zuuk Architects
I think I don't like this bridge, but I'm really not sure.

'Location critical' for River Thames footbridge idea
Bridge proposed between Sunbury and Walton

New footbridge over city canal set to get go-ahead
New bridge at Speirs Wharf in Glasgow.

Revised footbridge designs for Greenwich Reach/Deptford Creek
Flint and Neill and Moxon are brought in to provide some much-needed common sense.

A bridge too far: Dozens of tourists plummet into lake after ignoring 'maximum capacity of 40' warning sign
Brand new footbridge in China unable to carry crowd loading. No serious injuries but plenty of photos of the collapse. The photos appear to show that the upper chord of the bridge truss initially behaved as a catenary, with the floor and lower chord peeling away from the truss web members, suggesting completely inadequate truss connections as the main cause of failure.

Foryd Harbour Bridge opens to public

Here's a nice aerial video of this bridge being opened to the public. According to the contractor's website, it cost £6.5m, which is a greater than 50% increase over the £4m budget stated when the design competition was held. Back in 2009, I said the bridge design was "like to prove a challenge technically, financially, and in achieving the desired programme", and I correctly predicted it would over-run on both budget and programme. I also thought it might prove unreliable in service due to the very unusual opening mechanism. I guess we'll have to wait and see whether that also proves to be true - it may not, as the "drawbridge" mechanism in the contest-winning design appears to have been replaced in the final structure with a more conventional hydraulic ram.

Third-party review reveals design concerns over halted Airport Parkway pedestrian bridge
Ottawa cable-stayed bridge is the subject of considerable embarrassment. A full copy of the critical review findings is online.