Three Small Bridges

Pedestrian bridges are often considered as an opportunity to design something special, that is well and fine detailed, and that will be prominent and noted. Modern tools make it possible to design and analyse more and more complicated structures, while the small magnitude of the loadings gives a possibility to deviate from ordinary types of structures. As the Great Designs are often well known landmarks, it shall not be forgotten that all pedestrian bridges form an important part of our built environment. Road bridges are often viewed from afar, whereas pedestrian bridges are experienced close-up. Road bridges call for durability and safety but in pedestrian bridges, the durability and safety recalls fine detailing instead of standard proven and tested solutions. Also national characteristics have influence on the design of bridges, as is the case in Finland. Whereas complicated structures create a challenge to design in their own, the simpler ones provide a platform to study various other topics. One may study for example details in the design, or experiment with new solutions. This paper presents three small pedestrian bridges, for which the client wanted normal but well detailed and nice looking pedestrian bridges, leading to the various studies around the project and three unique footbridges to the city of Espoo.