Vlaardingse Vaart Bridge

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The Vlaardingse Vaart Bridge (also called The Twist) is a helical truss bridge for pedestrian and bicycle traffic over the Vlaardingervaart canal in Vlaardingen, Netherlands. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Location

Vlaardingen is a city in the Netherlands in the western outskirts of Rotterdam, on the north bank of the Maas ( Meuse ), and the Vlaardingse Vaart Bridge is located in the outskirts of Vlaardingen. It links two Vlaardingen suburbs, Holy-Zuid on the east side of the bridge and Broekpolder on the west side. [1] The bridge has a span of 45 meters across the Vlaardingse Vaart, a canal that runs north from Vlaardingen to Schipluiden. [4]

Design

The bridge's truss is made of 400 steel tubes, welded together and originally painted red; the color has since rapidly faded. [5] The truss's rectangular cross-section twists through a 90 degree angle along the span of the bridge, so that it is nearly horizontal at both ends of the bridge but diamond-shaped in the bridge's center. [2] [3] This design creates an illusion from some points of view that the bridge has collapsed, [1] but it also serves a functional purpose, damping vibrations from traffic on the bridge. [2]

History

The bridge was designed by Dutch firm West 8 beginning in 2005, with structural engineering consultation from another firm, ABT. It was prefabricated and then lifted into place in early 2009, and officially opened in April 2009. [2] [3] It was one of three finalists in the "best public space" category for the Dutch Design Awards in 2009. [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Liszewski, Andrew (November 24, 2011), This Twisted Bridge Isn’t a Failure At All, Gizmodo
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Twist Bridge, Vlaardingen", Wallpaper , March 2, 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 Placing Of New Pedestrian Bicycle Bridge ‘The Twist’, archiCentral, February 26, 2009
  4. Vlaardingse Vaart Bridge at Structurae . Retrieved 2011-12-05.
  5. Peter Spek, 'De Wokkel over Vlaardingse Vaart is aan een onderhoudsbeurt toe', Groot Vlaardingen, March 8, 2019.
  6. Appendix – Finalists Dutch Design Awards 2009, accessed 2011-12-06. See also Brug over de Vlaardingse Vaart on the Dutch Design Awards site (in Dutch).

51°55′22″N4°20′24″E / 51.922908°N 4.339944°E / 51.922908; 4.339944