The Nescio Bridge was presented with the Arthur G. Hayden Award during the International Bridge Conference in Pittsburgh (USA) in 2007. Following earlier awards, the bridge over the Amsterdam Rhine Canal won again a prize, and this time an international one!
International Bridge Conference
The conference is a major gathering for the bridge industry in North America, Europe and Asia. Each year, the conference attracts more than 1,200 owners and designers of bridges, engineers, policy-makers, government representatives, contractors and suppliers from all over the world.
Hayden Award
The Arthur G. Hayden award is intended for innovative bridge designs in the non-traditional structures category. The description of the Arthur G. Hayden Medal is as follows: ‘For a single recent outstanding achievement in bridge engineering demonstrating innovation in special use bridges such as pedestrian, people-mover, or non-traditional structures.’ In 2005, the award went to the Liberty Bridge (Greenville, South Carolina), a design by Schlaich Bergermann und Partner. Last year, the prize was won by the Pier 6 Airbridge, at Gatwick airport, in the UK.
Three prizes
In October 2006 the cycle and pedestrian bridge won the National Steel Prize in the 'Infrastructure and other steel constructions' category. And in January 2007 the bridge won the Fietsvakantie Trofee 2007.
Longest cycle and pedestrian bridge
The suspension bridge connects IJburg directly with the East/Watergraafsmeer district. This provides a shorter cycle and pedestrian connection between the mainland of Amsterdam and the island district of IJburg. At 780 metres, the Nescio Bridge is the longest cycle and pedestrian bridge in the Netherlands and has the largest free span (163.50 metres), with the bridge deck hanging from one suspension cable.
Successful cooperation
The total design of the Nescio Bridge was created by a cooperation between the architects' office of Wilkinson Eyre, Grontmij and Arup. The principal was the Municipality of Amsterdam, the general coordination and quality control were executed by ABT and the contractor was VolkerWessels (Van Hattum & Blankevoort and van Splunder Funderingstechniek / Heerema Fabrication).