Pedestrian suspension bridge in Reutte, Tyrol, is the world’s longest

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The suspension bridge was erected at a height of nearly 1,100 m and leads across the fortification of Ehrenberg, linking the ruins of Castle Ehrenberg and Fort Claudia at a clear height of 110 m. The overhead walkway sags by 17 m, with the slack span being able to expand by approx. 1 m subject to load and temperature. The 1.2 m wide steel grid footpath is supported by cross-beams that are fastened to the suspension cables via vertical hangers.

Tensile piles as a tieback solution

Ground anchors or tensile piles are a very economical tieback solution in this case because the tensile loads emanating from the bridge cables can be directly transferred into the load-bearing soil. During the construction of the suspension bridge, four 60 mm Ø support cables were tied back at each side of the bridge using tensile piles that reach into the load-bearing rock up to a depth of 17 m. As the piles are skin friction piles, they can transfer compression, tensile and alternating loads.

During construction work, load tests were carried out on site that proved the optimum transfer of loads via the anchoring elements.