Adaptation of old disused railway viaducts for tourist pedestrian and cyclist traffic

In the 20th century, operation of some of the local railway connections ceased to be profitable in Poland. The railways that fell into disuse were closed and dismantled but the fill bodies and brick or concrete railway bridges mostly remained. These old and abandoned structures, located in attractive tourist areas, are nowadays undergoing revitalization in order to become elements of tourist routes for pedestrians and cyclists. Two cases of revitalization of abandoned arch railway viaducts are presented in the paper.

The footbridge in the Owl Mountains (the “Sowie” Mountains)is a brick viaduct (built in 1902) located within the Owl Mountains railway network, in the province of Lower Silesia, Poland. The total length of the viaduct is 90,00 m and it consists of three arch spans of 26,00 + 27,00 + 26,00 m. The total width is 4,35 m. The structure had been in a bad technical condition (damage typical of disused brick structures) but, underwent revitalization in 2012-2013 to become a footbridge.

The footbridge in Stańczykiis the other former viaduct consisting of twin structures, built in 1912-1918. The lengths of both structures are equal to 180 m. Their spans are of the following lengths 20,00+3x25,00+20,00 m. The height above the terrain is 36,5 m. The revitalization was planned to be conducted in stages. So far, a new surface has been performed and the railings have been repaired.