Weathering steel footbridges over railway tracks - Campus Bridge in Opladen

Railway network operators have always been concerned about new bridge crossings above their routes, as their construction and later maintenance is often connected to an expensive disruption of the railway traffic. Although easy-toinstall modular steel bridges were a suitable solution to the erection problem, long-time maintenance to prevent corrosion remained an issue until a recent renaissance of weathering steel structures in the mid-2000's.

One of such structures was opened to public in May 2013 in the German town Opladen following a winning 2008 design competition by the interdisciplinary team of Stuttgart-based Knippers Helbig engineers and specialist bridge designers Knight Architects from High Wycombe. The brief called for two parallel bridges of approximately 100m length, crossing a heavily used railway corridor, and was met by an unusual architectural solution responding to a clever engineering approach.

The paper will discuss the benefits and lessons learned in conjunction with the practical use of weathering steel, shown on the example of a parametrically designed bridge structure.