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Project Description
Built in 2007, this footbridge stretches across Vallparadís Park, to connect two parts of the old town of Terrassa. This park is one of the biggest urban recreational areas of Catalonia, which traverses the city along a valley carved by a creek.
The bridge offers an innovative aesthetic design and consists of three 33 m long simply supported spans. The 3 m wide deck is supported by a double steel truss of variable depth, whose members are hollow tubes with different geometries and are made of steel plates. The bottom chord of each truss describes a parabolic arch in an inclined plane, a composition that evokes memories of the flight of three birds coming back to this recovered green corridor. The deck is a composite steel-concrete structure with transverse floor girders connected every 1.8 m with Bernold type studs, supporting an 18 cm thick reinforced concrete slab. The transverse girders are rigidly connected at their edges to the top chord of the trusses.
One of the requirements from the owner was to integrate an elevator to connect the ground level of the park with the bridge 11 m above. The elevator has been located 35 m from one of the abutments and also serves as support for the adjacent spans. The final product is a clearly three dimensional structure of a light, sober and transparent design.
Design/Construction Approach
Once the concrete foundations, abutments and piers had been installed, the steel trusses were assembled on site in six sections - two segments for each truss - and welded together. After erection of two parallel sections of the trusses, transverse beams and lateral ribs were welded and placed in their final positions, without temporary piers. The concrete slab was put in place after the steel structure using cold-formed steel sheets as formwork.
Further Information
World Steel Bridge Conference 2007 “Innovative road and pedestrian bridges in urban areas” Juan A. Sobrino & Javier Jordán.
