Piston stayed bascule bridge: a novel mobile bridge typology at Temse, Belgium

摘要

This paper discusses a novel typology for medium span mobile bridges: the piston stayed basculebridge. The Temse bridge over the river Scheldt (Belgium) illustrates this system. This competitionwinning project runs 374m over seven fixed parts with spans varying between 18 and 74 m and twomobile spans of 28m. The design considerations and the structural static and kinematic system forthis project are discussed. The main design idea is "structural integration" namely that one elementfulfils more than one function. The structural innovation lies in the use of the piston stay thatdoubles up as static structural element and as a kinematic actuator. Combined with counterweights,this structural system presents a new and elegant solution for mobile bridges.