Sofiero Footbridge
Elegant bridge design for a lush park
As a light and almost transparent steel construction Sofiero Footbridge is elegantly floating above a ravine.
- Location
- Helsingborg, Sweden
- Category
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridges
- Year
- 2015 - 2018
- Client
- Helsingborg Stad
- Collaborators
- Schlaich Bergermann Partner / Becht
- Size
- 57 m
- Awards
- Stålbyggnadspriset 2021
The pedestrian bridge by Sofiero Castle in Helsingborg is designed with minimal impact on the vegetation. As a light and almost transparent curved steel construction it is elegantly floating above a lush ravine. It is fabricated off-site, assembled on location and lifted into place by mobile cranes.
The bridge has taken its S-form from the winding pathways making the crossing more than just taking you from A to B.
The aim for us was to design a bridge with a single span and hereby avoiding supports in the ravine. The structural system of the proposed footbridge consists of a simply-supported beam conjugated to a suspension cable underneath it to overcome a 57-metres long span. The main girder is composed by a straight steel box with a curved cantilevered deck connected to its top, stiffened by equally-spaced intermediate steel sheets, whereas the suspension system consists of a set of intermediate struts, connecting the main girder to a catenary cable, fixed at the ends.
Despite the unstable ground and the beautiful overgrown plantation, which has meant special technical considerations for design and construction work, we have created a bridge with the least possible intervention in the surroundings.