The 4th bridge across the Danube river in Linz is part of a major Austrian infrastructure development – the A 26 highway, a fourlane western bypass for the city of Linz – and it crosses one of the busiest waterways in Europe, as well as rail tracks and a road. The crossing actually consists of two adjacent road bridges, designed as suspension bridges. Owing to the steep hillsides rising from the northern bank, they connect to the existing transport network there via tunnels.
The superstructure is planned as a composite steel construction, with a central steel box girder and haunched steel crossbeams spaced at the intervals of the hangers. The 145mm diameter suspension cable bundles are composed of 12 parallellay, fully locked coil ropes. The hangers too are coil ropes, but with a diameter of 95mm. The cable clamps are caststeel units. The required noise barrier with a height of 4m is designed to be transparent, so that the bridge is perceived neither as an enclosing trough by its users nor as a bulky bar from the outside. The minimal, simple structure ensures that the bridge will blend into the landscape.
