THE KORSHOLMANPUISTIKKO BRIDGE WILL ADD AN ELEGANT NEW LAYER TO VAASA’S IDENTITY, REFLECTING THE CITY’S ENERGY AND FORWARD-LOOKING APPROACH.
A team formed by ARCO, Sweco and Lighting Design Collective won the 2019 design competition for the Korsholmanpuistikko Bridge in Vaasa with their proposal ‘Vaaka’. The four-lane bridge will connect the old centre of Vaasa to the Klemettilä area on the other side of the railway yard, thus enabling the expansion of the city centre to the north-east, as envisaged in the disposition plan. The aim was also to create a landmark for the new residential area along the railway line and for the whole of South Klemettilä.
The dynamic nature of the structures, which curve like the waves of the sea, forms a memorable and visually balanced whole, both at close range and along the axes of the urban framework.
The bridge is complex in its simplicity and consists visually of two identical arch elements and tension bars. Viewed from a distance, the bridge’s silhouette varies according to the direction due to the slope of the arches and their asymmetrical placement. At close range, the gracefulness and dynamic style of the arches is also emphasised by the triangular profile. The envisaged bridge is a single-opening bowstring girder bridge. Measured from the centre line, the bridge is 52 metres long. In a bowstring girder bridge, the horizontal load of the arch is received by the beams of the superstructure and is not applied to the foundations. The arches of the bridge are triangular in cross-section and support the sloping bridge deck by means of tension bars.
