The three bridges crossing the Emscher are, as a bridge family, an integral part of the loop around the newly designed Phoenix lake in Dortmund. Designed as foot and bike-path bridges with a width of 5,00 m they span across the approx. 40 m wide Emscher flood plains. The apex of the bridges presents a subtle emblem for the pedestrians and bikers. The lateral steel arches made of flat steel packets are affixed to the abutments below the walking surface using pre-tensioned threaded bars. The superstructure slab is connected to the abutments monolithically and suspended from the arches through stainless steel rods at a spacing of 3 m. The transverse beams are connected via shear studs to the superstructure slab and function as composite beams. The connection of the hangers to the arches / transverse beams allows for rotations due to differential deformations between the superstructure and the arches.
