The 115m pedestrian bridge provides vital access to 187 acres of parkland including public playing fields and sports facilities. The alignment of the bridge skirts round the existing Dukes Hollows Nature Reserve and features slender spans that hug the shoreline, touching down on discreet piers that provide a minimal footprint in one of the few remaining natural tidal habitats in London.
The well-detailed design of this footbridge features an atypical orientation of structural hollow section (SHS) tubes for top and bottom chords, along with diagonal structural supports, resulting in an interesting design that fits well in the surroundings.
As the main span of the bridge runs along the River Thames beneath an existing railway bridge, the project team successfully overcame complex site constraints and devised creative construction methods in response to the restricted headroom and large tidal variation at the site.