Frame and Form

Restoring the Broken Bridge is a special work, difficult to categorize or classify, it is a meeting point between history, architecture and engineering. Presents an unusual approach in the restoration of bridges, because instead of restoring the bridge to its previous state, has chosen to build a new and modern structure, which completes the remains of old bridge.

The pont saves trencat Tordera to unite with Santa Maria de Sant Celoni Palautordera, two neighboring villages situated 50 km northeast of Barcelona. Was destroyed in 1811 during French War, and was abandoned until the 1996 and 2003 carried out a reform that has restored its function.

The restoration was designed by Pont Trencat Solà and Xavier Font Alpha Team Polaris. Also worth noting the quality of construction by the company Sapic and metal workshop Tamansa.

Another aspect, more social than technical, is that this restoration initiative started from people linked to the two municipalities mentioned (Sant Celoni and Santa Maria de Palautordera) which formed the Roman Bridge Association 2000 from where they coordinated the most important aspects of the project: From fundraising to finance the project development and monitoring of works.

The basic idea of design is to regain use of the missing bridge building with a new structure with a material and a modern design with the aim of achieving a contrast between new and existing part. Thus, the bridge returns to its function, but in appearance and in essence remains the Pont Trencat.

The new part shape evokes the old bridge, that although the investigation has not known exactly. This ignorance of the original appearance of the bridge and the long period in which the bridge has been destroyed (almost 200 years ago) ruled out the option of a mimetic reconstruction stone. Xavier Font opted for a restoration of the bridge based on a new structure built of weathering steel that produces a marked contrast between the modern and ancient.

Therefore, from a formal point of view, a key theme of restoration is that the new silhouette, marked by the crowning of the parapet or parapet line and the line of the new arch intrados, follows the form that probably had the bridge before its destruction.

The new structure consists of a continuous deck by two rooms which rests on its ends on two separate brackets provided the first inside the stone structure and the other on the opposite side of the room. The intermediate support is made on the key guideline biarticulated a Gothic arch.

The board has an open trapezoidal section in the upper. Your song 3 m was chosen for aesthetic reasons to get a more balanced volume ratio between the mass of stone and the new. The wooden floor has been arranged at an intermediate level board (1.84 m above the bottom of the section) so that the extension of the souls of trapezius function parapet make. This parapet extends longitudinally beyond the new structure, along the ancient remains, providing a background against which highlights, if anything a little more, irregular shape of the old stone.

An interesting detail is how the board "is based" on the arc; intersects the arc board. The fact of crossing the bow with the board, is a unique provision; can integrate the two in an equal relationship while maintaining its identity.

In reality, the arc 24 m light is divided into two side drawers that are the tough part. In the lower stretch of starts and kidney the two arches are joined by St. Andrew's crosses that are concealed by a veneer that gives continuity to the whole, externally so that the arc takes the appearance of a single drawer. However, in the key area of the two cases leaves a space for the passage of the board.

At the ends of the bridge have been built places of access paths. The floors of these places is formed by a combination of pink granite slabs (Porriño) and precast concrete with bush hammered finish. In one of those places, the opposite bridge remains- was prepared as a balcony platform, which affords a panoramic view of new bridge. On this platform is wooden floor, like the bridge pavement. 

This work received the Footbridge 2005 award by the magazine BridgeDesign&Engineering in the category of aesthetic bridges up 30 m span. It has also been recognized in other competitions: Alcántara Bridge Award 2004-2004, Construmat Awards 2005, Europa Nostra 2006 Awards, AR Awards for Emerging Architecture 2006.

Perhaps the largest of the awards is that the work of restuaración the bridge was completed with a series of environmental measures in their environment, so that the architectural design has become a dynamic catalyst for improvement in a suburban area that before the restoration was in a fairly degraded state.

We have to thank Xavier Solà Font has left us an article about the design of Pont Trencat. Some of the paragraphs have been included in this article are transcripts of the article. The photos are also of Xavier. Thank you very much for your help.

Meta-information:

Homepage Roman Bridge Association 2000.

Post the ingenieriaenlared. Contains bridge presentation.

The Trencat bridge in wikipedia.

The bridge in Trencat Structurae. You can read some technical data and you can find some photos.