Client: National HighwaysEngineer: Format EngineersLocation: London, United Kingdom
Date: 2024-09-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTCTags: Steel, stone, bridge, Digital Design, Parametric Design, low carbon
National Highways
Our proposal for the 2024 National Highways bridge competition balanced extremely low carbon with pragmatism. We recommended materials which can be readily procured and which have been proven to work in highway bridge design. But we adopted an approach of questioning the received wisdom of the geometry of the bridge and the performance of that upon the structural fabric. We adhered to a tenet of least material by design by the use of refined digital computation techniques to inform decision-making. The result is scalable to different sites as well as its home on the A127.
We chose elements which can be sourced from repurposed material stocks as well as being easier to deconstruct and reuse at the end of the life of the bridge thus avoiding the use of inefficient and carbon intensive single-use concrete. Our solution is an elegant flowing arched truss which is a reflection of the global behaviour of the structure. The structure is composed of low-maintenance weathering steel. It is light, open, comfortable to use and elegant. The ramps at either end spiral through the landscape, using as little land area as possible whilst giving a comfortable experience for the user.