Have I mentioned that I love wood as a building material? If sustainably harvested it provides a strong, beautiful material that can last for centuries and sequester CO2 the whole time. People have built bridges from it forever, but in such exposed circumstances they don’t last forever.
But now there are better wood preservation techniques, and Kris De Decker of No Tech Magazine points us to a lovely new bridge in the Netherlands, purported to be the first wooden bridge in the world that can support the heaviest load class of 60 tons.
Spanning 105 feet and rising more than 50 feet in the air, the structure will serve as a grand entrance to the city of Sneek. The €3.5 million bridge
was commissioned after a 2005 design competition, and is designed by OAK Architects (a collaboration between Achterbosch Architectuur and Onix architects) and constructed by German firm Schaffitzel Holzindustrie. It is made from Accoya Wood, where source-certified sustainable species, including FSC certified wood, is treated by acetylation.
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