The Vlaardingse Vaart Bridge (also called The Twist) is a helical

truss bridge A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

for pedestrian and bicycle traffic over the Vlaardingervaart canal in

Vlaardingen Vlaardingen () is a large town and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is located on the north bank of the Nieuwe Maas river at the confluence with the Oude Maas. The municipality admin ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Location

Vlaardingen is a city in the Netherlands in the western outskirts of

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, on the north bank of the Maas (''

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

''), and the Vlaardingse Vaart Bridge is located in the outskirts of Vlaardingen. It links two Vlaardingen suburbs, Holy-Zuid on the east side of the bridge and Broekpolder on the west side. The bridge has a span of 45 meters across the Vlaardingse Vaart, a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

that runs north from Vlaardingen to

Schipluiden Schipluiden is a village in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is the seat of the council of the municipality of Midden-Delfland. The village was founded relatively late in the 15th century and evolved around the Keenen ...

Design

The bridge's truss is made of 400 steel tubes, welded together and originally painted red; the color has since rapidly faded. The truss's rectangular cross-section twists through a 90 degree angle along the span of the bridge, so that it is nearly horizontal at both ends of the bridge but diamond-shaped in the bridge's center. This design creates an illusion from some points of view that the bridge has collapsed, but it also serves a functional purpose, damping vibrations from traffic on the bridge.

History

The bridge was designed by Dutch firm

West 8 West 8 is an urban planning and landscape architecture firm founded by Adriaan Geuze and Paul van Beek in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1987. It is known for its contemporary designs and innovative solutions to urban planning problems using lighting, m ...

beginning in 2005, with structural engineering consultation from another firm, ABT. It was prefabricated and then lifted into place in early 2009, and officially opened in April 2009. It was one of three finalists in the "best public space" category for the

Dutch Design Awards The Dutch Design Awards (DDA) honour the best Dutch designs across eight categories. Design initiatives and designers in the Netherlands are awarded annually, primarily by relevance and impact, but also to the extent to which they relate to thei ...

in 2009.Appendix – Finalists Dutch Design Awards 2009
accessed 2011-12-06. See als
Brug over de Vlaardingse Vaart
on the Dutch Design Awards site (in Dutch).

References

External links

*. {{Coord, 51.922908, 4.339944, format=dms, type:landmark_region:NL, display=title Truss bridges Cyclist bridges in the Netherlands Steel bridges in the Netherlands Bridges in South Holland Vlaardingen __NOTOC__