A 55-metre-wide bridge has become Ghent’s northern gateway

The „Piramidebrug” (Piramis Bridge) is a true feat of engineering: it was necessary to span the Ringvaart Canal – which carries a huge volume of freight traffic – with an exceptionally wide carriageway, which is why the designers opted for a pyramid-shaped design. As stated on the designers’ website: the 106-metre-long, 55-metre-wide steel structure with a clear span rises some 30 metres above the water level, and its total weight amounts to 6,687 tonnes.

The designers also had to incorporate six traffic lanes, two hard shoulders, a cycle path and an eight-metre-wide wildlife crossing into the design.

A curved bridge with three cable systems was chosen, in which the deck is a composite structure consisting of steel girders and a concrete deck slab. Based on the designs by Ney & Partners , the bridge was built by the BRAVO4 consortium as the northern gateway to Ghent and will also serve as a defining architectural landmark for the region.

Part of a massive investment package

The new footbridge spanning the Ringvaart canal in the Evergem district of Ghent, Belgium, was officially opened on 17 October, and on 26 October – as highlighted by Architecture Hub Facebook channel – it was fully opened to traffic.

The bridge was not built as a stand-alone project: it forms part of the Flemish Community’s comprehensive project, R4WO . The concession contract for this project has a total value of over 1 billion euros, whilst the direct construction costs amount to approximately 726 million euros. The development is being carried out on behalf of the Flemish Government by the consortium comprising De Werkvennootschap and BRAVO4 (including, amongst others, BESIX, Stadsbader, I4B, Rebel and EPICo) under a DBFM (design, build, finance, operate) arrangement, alongside a comprehensive modernisation of the 22 junctions and road network of the Ghent ring road. The contract for operation was awarded for a period of 30 years.