The project for the construction of the footbridge and the safety of the embankments is overall an urban redevelopment intervention which involves not only the crossing of the two banks of the river but the entire reorganization of pedestrian and road traffic at the mouth of the Roja for the purpose to optimize the city's usability of the riverside.
Since the Roja river has a torrential character with rare but remarkably violent floods and since the last footbridge that collapsed in 2020 was the third of two other bridges that suffered the same fate during the twentieth century, all with piles in the riverbed, it was decided to create a structure that with a single span could reach the opposite banks, without in any way interfering with the flow of the Roja. Therefore, wanting to avoid inserting intermediate supports in the river bed and at the same time bulky objects such as a cable-stayed flagpole, the structural solution chosen is a steel walkway made up of a single beam with a clear span of 125 meters whose section it increases as one moves away from the banks, starting from a height of 180 cm at the supports to reach a height of 484 cm in the centre. The resistant section of the walkway consists of a closed metal box in order to provide both flexural and torsional stiffness. The section has a non-regular (but symmetrical) hexagonal shape. The width of the body is variable and goes from a value of 550 cm near the shoulders to a width of 750 cm in the centre. Finally, even the intrados of the beam does not remain at the same height but grows slightly (by 10 cm) moving towards the center of the bridge.Â
Which benefits have you found using BIM and Tekla Structures as modeling software?:Â
The possibility of taming shapes, even complex ones, through continuous control of the project and of visualizing interferences both in the final phase and in the construction phase with the modeling of temporary elements such as piles, sheet piles, excavations as well as plant elements.
Which software version and which environment have you used?:
Tekla structures 2022, Italy environment
What role did your company play in this project? :Â
Structural designerÂ
Builder – Structural designer:
EXA Engineering
Buyer  – Architectural designer:
KK Architetti Associati
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