Structural Design of the Footbridge Smeedenpoort in Bruges, Belgium

The Smedenpoort (ENG: gateway of the blacksmiths), one of the four remaining heritage listed gateways of the city of Bruges, built in the 13th century had become a bottleneck, being too narrow to organize a fluid traffic of cars, pedestrians and cyclists. The city of Bruges decided, under supervision of the “Commission of Monuments and Landscapes” to add new footbridges on both sides of the existing heritage monument.

The new footbridges had to respect the strong historical presence of its surroundings. The path has been conceived as an element that embraces the existing bridge and gateway showing respect to the old monument. The structural elements have a reduced dimension due to the large number of supports and the structural use of the railing. This results in a filigree structural design. The structure is constructed in weathering steel and the walking surface is made of prefabricated concrete tiles. The use of steel bars instead of hollow sections and the details used refer to handcraft.