Bridge crossing of the River Nidelva, Trondheim, Norway

Abstract

A new bridge over the River Nidelva in Trondheim, Norway, is part of a new ring road on the city’s northern coast which relieves the city centre of heavy traffic. The bridge design – developed and completed by COWI in co-operation with Danish architects Dissing and Weitling – was selected through a design competition tendered out by the Norwegian Road Administration, Vegvesenet Midt. A convincing scheme was submitted for the design competition and the contract was eventually awarded to the team to bring forward the tender design into the detailed design phase. This paper presents the as-built bridge with emphasis on selected key items and special solutions with respect to the entry’s outlined objectives, which helped to win the design competition. Attention is given to how the objectives and corresponding solutions found their expression in the final detailed design. The paper also describes how special technology has been implemented and how the engineering process has been able to bring life to the aesthetic objectives.