November 2009
Halcrow’s Boscastle Lower Bridge project was awarded the Certificate of Excellence in the Civil Engineering category at last week’s Concrete Society Awards for 2009. The bridge forms part of the wider flood defence scheme that was promoted by the Environment Agency and delivered by Halcrow.
The original grade II listed lower bridge was damaged by the devastating 1-in-400-year floods, which caused significant damage to the historic Cornish village of Boscastle in 2004. In order to reduce further flood risk, the original bridge had to be replaced with one much larger and wider.
Close collaboration with the contractor, Carillion and the precast manufacturer, Cornish Concrete Products, enabled a complex structure, which pushed the design to its limits, to be completed to a demanding £500,000 budget and timescale.
Halcrow’s Neil Harris said:
“The opportunity to design a bridge in such a sensitive setting was a privilege, and great fun, and collectively it was a fantastic team effort to achieve something of real and lasting quality.
Halcrow undertook the inception, detailed design and site supervision to deliver an elegant, slender bridge which is curved on plan, elevation, and section. The span/depth ratios and construction techniques were pushed hard to achieve an extremely thin deck; the under-drawn soffit accentuates this effect by creating the illusion of an impossibly thin blade spanning the river, which belies its function as a road bridge and minimising its impact on the scenery. The bespoke steel handrails which are curved in three dimensions complements an aesthetically pleasing design which won favour with the Concrete Society’s judging panel.
The judge’s commented “the design, construction and engineering input into creating this visually understated bridge is considerable and well executed.”