Footbridge over the Divoká Orlice River in Žamberk, Czech Republic by Klokner Institute CTU in Prague

The new footbridge replaced a classic, arched, concrete footbridge from the first half of the last century. The supporting structure consisted of a pair of concrete arches, each 350 mm thick. The footbridge was part of the town’s skyline and was popular with the locals. Unfortunately, the original structure was in such poor condition that it had to be replaced with a new one. We came up with the concept of keeping the exact silhouette of the original footbridge’s concrete arch and casting the arch from UHPC.

The resulting thickness of the arch structure is 175 mm, i.e., half the thickness of the original concrete arch. The silhouette of the original bridge has been retained in the cityscape, but in detail, it is a contemporary structure. The charm of this structure is precisely its shaped reference to the original footbridge, using modern UHPC material, which has made the arch as subtle and durable as possible. It is the first UHPC structure with an upper arch in the world.