Friday, March 13, 2009

Singapore's Bridges: Esplanade Bridge

About two km south of the Crawford Bridge, where the Singapore River pours into Marina Bay, is the Esplanade Bridge. It is a seven span open spandrel arch, 260 m (850 ft) long, 70 m (230 ft) wide, and with eight traffic lanes and two walkways. It is a popular tourist destination, close to museums and theaters, and with excellent views of Marina Bay. On National Day and New Year's Eve the bridge is closed to traffic to allow pedestrians to watch the fireworks displays from the deck of the bridge.

The bridge was completed in 1997 by the Obayashi Corporation but I couldn't find out who designed it. It appears to be more of a folded shell structure rather than a typical arch bridge.  The arch spans are about 35 m (115 ft) long with only about a 2.5 m (8 ft) rise and the deck is unsupported over the piers.  It is an unusual design but a very attractive bridge.
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Singapore's Bridges: Esplanade Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

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