The course was launched in 2011 to introduce students to the finest examples of contemporary bridge design. My aim is to show what it takes to design a truly attractive and feature-rich bridge.
Aesthetic bridge design has been gaining attention since the 1990s, perhaps starting with the Calatrava's Alamillo Bridge, designed for the Seville World Expo'92. Bridges are no longer seen as purely monofunctional objects, and in some cases they now have functional added value. The design of bridges was for a long time the exclusive domain of engineers, but today almost all infrastructure elements have attracted the attention of architects, landscape architects and urban planners.
The six-month project involves designing a pedestrian or road bridge on a real site in Budapest. There are 20 sites to choose from. The spatial model of the bridge can be created using Rhino or any other visual design software. Instead of a software-based spatial model, a model can be created as well.
The educational material includes many photos for illustration. The majority of the images are taken from the official website of the design company credited as the source, while the source of many of the shots taken during construction is unknown. To avoid any legal disputes, I have uploaded the following password-protected pdf files for private use. The password is the surname of the Spanish bridge designer/architect in the second paragraph.
LECTURE 0 - Important information
LECTURE 1 - Overview of bridge history (24MB)
LECTURE 2 - Evolution of form as structure (23MB)
LECTURE 3 - Short span bridges (under 40m) (59MB)
LECTURE 4 - Short multispan bridges (max 40 m) (46MB)
LECTURE 5 - Medium span bridges (40-60 m) (50MB)
LECTURE 6 - Long span bridges (60-100 m) (55MB)
LECTURE 7 - Long span bridges over 100 m) (47MB)
This educational material is fundamentally visual. The following content, focusing on criticism and bridge aesthetics, can significantly aid comprehension:
Criticism in bridge aesthetics - The human–centered framework of bridge aesthetics
Vigh, A., Kollár, L.P. (2007): Routing and permitting techniques of owerweight vehicles, Journal of Bridge Engineering Vol. 12, No. 6. 774-784.
Vigh, A., Kollár, L.P. (2006): Approximate analysis of bridges for the routing and permitting procedures of overweight vehicle, Journal of Bridge Engineering Vol. 11, No. 3. 282-292.
Vigh, A., Kollár, L.P. (2006): Comparison of the axle loads for evaluating overweight vehicle permits, IABSE Symposium Budapest 2006 - Report, Vol. 92. 9 oldal (CD kiadvány)
Vigh, A., Kollár, L.P. (2004): An approximate method for calculating the routing and permitting of overweight vehicles over bridges, 5th International Ph.D. Symposium in Civil Engineering, Delft 2004 - Balkema Publishers 921-928.
The permitting process of overweight vehicle requires the analysis of
the load-bearing capacity of bridges. The dissertation presents a new method
for comparing the mechanical effects of overweight vehicles and the design load
vehicle such as the Hungarian „A” type vehicle. The method is based on three
artificial influence lines. The main advantage of the method that it requires
very few data only: the span(s) and the width of the bridge, the type of the
superstructure, the axle loads and spacing of the design load vehicle and that
of the overweight vehicle.
The calculation is fast, and robust. The method is applicable to simple
span bridges, continuous girders, truss girders, arch bridges, frame bridges
and solid spandrel arches.
More than 85000 calculations were carried out to verify the method. In
most of the cases, the method is conservative; the maximum error on the unsafe
side is 15 % for different bridge structures (the error on the unsafe side can
also be compensated by applying a safety factor).
It can also take into account that the overweight vehicle may operate
within regular traffic or it may cross the bridge at a given lane position
while any other traffic load is prohibited on the bridge.
This method can serve as the basic building block of permitting
procedures of overweight vehicles. The algorithm can be connected to a
bridge-databank, and to an optimization algorithm, and thus a fast and reliable
tool is obtained to find the proper route of an overweight vehicle and thus
permits can be issued automatically.
The presented method, together with the parameters, was built in a
computer program, which is used, by the Technical and Information Services on
National Roads – Hungary.