Softroom Ltd

Pennington Road Footbridge

Pennington Road Footbridge
© Joseph Burns

PENNINGTON ROAD FOOTBRIDGE

Softroom

ARCHITECTS
Softroom

LOCATION
Merseyside, UK

CATEGORY
Pedestrian Bridge

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Eckersley O’Callaghan

PHOTOGRAPHS
Joseph Burns

PROJECT YEAR
2011

INTRODUCTION

Softroom Architects and Eckersley O’Callaghan structural engineers won the commission for the Pennington Road footbridge through an RIBA design competition in 2006/7 that attracted over 150 entries from around the world. Replacing an old industrial structure, the recently completed bridge is intended to act as a focus for the regeneration of the area and a gateway to Bootle for users of the Leeds-Liverpool canal.

Pennington Road Footbridge
© Joseph Burns
Pennington Road Footbridge
© Joseph Burns

THE BRIDGE AND APPROACHES

The overall bridge form follows a typology of traditional canal bridges, where a ramped side approach links to a simple spanning or shallow arched bridge structure.

Updated for current standards of accessibility, the steep ramp has been replaced with a more complex shallow inclined and stepped approach, and gently curving approaches have been cut into a newly formed hard landscape, much as paths wind their way up a hillside slope.

Pennington Road Footbridge
© Joseph Burns
Pennington Road Footbridge
© Joseph Burns

BRIDGE STRUCTURE

The bridge span is 19.4 metres with a deck width of 2.4 metres. The structure is a pair of deep, rectangular, singly curved, mechanically laminated and simply supported hardwood beams placed within the balustrade zone of the bridge in order to reduce the depth of the structure.

This provides a visually unobtrusive and elegant design solution. Cantilevered reinforced concrete abutments span over the towpath, supported by faceted concrete in-situ concrete walls, these in turn supported on cast in-place piles. The ramp structure is of reinforced earth, sitting on a basal layer of reinforced fill supported by piles.

MATERIALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

The bridge structure and finishes are constructed from timber to create a feeling of tactility and warmth. The specification of a sustainably sourced hardwood provides longevity and robustness to the design as well as addressing concerns about sustainable construction.

Pennington Road Footbridge
© Joseph Burns
Pennington Road Footbridge
© Joseph Burns

The timber is mechanically laminated with steel dowels and bolts, avoiding the use of adhesives.

The concrete works utilise a pulverised fuel ash as a more sustainable substitute to cement, and reinforced earth engineering techniques have been employed to support the curving ramp structure to minimise the requirement for using additional concrete.

ACCESSABILITY

The bridge is designed to be fully accessible, safe and enjoyable to use by all with gentle generous approaches and level thresholds throughout. The design also promotes the sense of a social landscape for the local community; the stepped and inclined approach to the west bank and the generous width and welcoming materiality of the bridge and approach to the east offer places to dwell and ponder, rest and interact. This improved condition creates a strong sense of place, and compliments the wider urban renewal ambitions of the adjacent housing developments.


Pennington Road Footbridge
Plan
Pennington Road Footbridge
Plan


Pennington Road Footbridge
Elevation
Pennington Road Footbridge
Elevation


Pennington Road Footbridge
Section

Softroom Ltd
T +44 20 35976888
Softroom Ltd
3 Murphy St, London SE1 7FP, United Kingdom