09 March 2011

Is this the UK's first prestressed granite bridge?

Nobody seems to have made much of a fuss over this, but I believe this new footbridge may be the UK's first prestressed granite bridge.


It was installed in December as part of a redevelopment of the Town Centre Gardens in Stevenage. A deteriorating timber footbridge had to be replaced, and the chosen solution was a 14.35m long, 0.25m thick prestressed granite bridge, designed and built by the German firm Kusser Aicha Granitewerk [PDF].

The bridge weighs 22 tonnes, and has a remarkably shallow span-to-depth ratio of 57. I've posted previously about this type of bridge, including a discussion of the various design issues and structural behaviour.

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