01. September 2015

Stainless steel fabric: Protective membrane for pedestrian bridge

The Griffith Drive Pedestrian Bridge in British Columbia, Canada, leads over a busy four-lane highway and connects Edmonds Town Centre South with a high school. The bridge design realized by the architects at Perkins+Will perfectly meets the municipal authorities' key requirements with regard to aesthetics and safety. For the transparent appearance of the construction, the developers chose Futura stainless steel fabric from GKD – GEBR. KUFFERATH AG.

The pedestrian bridge on Griffith Drive, to the south of Burnaby, leads over a busy highway and connects a residential area with a school. The most striking design feature of the footbridge, which is around 3.70 meters wide and 20 meters long, is an arch reaching several meters into the sky. It tilts diagonally over the bridge and is connected to the supporting structure by fine stainless steel wires. A total of 34 panels made of 102 square meters of Futura 3110 metallic fabric arch upward, tilting gently toward the middle of the bridge. These adorn the edges of the walkway while also serving as a reliable fall guard protection. The elements are around two and a half meters high and grant pedestrians an unobstructed view of their surroundings while also conveying a sense of safety through their transparency. The transparent fabric was fixed in place using the tried and tested structure with round rods and eyebolts. A crucial argument for choosing the metallic fabric from GKD was the low maintenance requirements of the material. This is easier on the city’s budget while still guaranteeing that the construction remains equally attractive for decades to come. It was therefore only logical that the bridge was named project of the year by the Public Works Association of British Columbia in the year of its completion.