Millenium Bridge in Southbank
The Millenium Bridge
"The Bridge will be lit at
night to form a blade of light across the Thames." Sir Norman Foster.
It's been described as yet another millennium bungle for London, but
there is still no set date for when the Millenium Bridge is to reopen after it
was shut down in June last year just a few days after opening because of severe
swaying.
The bridge is a 330m pedestrian bridge linking the City of
London at St Paul's Cathedral with the new Tate Gallery at Bankside. The deck
departs from the north bank of the Thames and lands in front of the South-East
corner of the new Tate Gallery.
The winning team for the bridge was
announced in December 1996, after an international competition. Arup are
engineers, Foster and Partners are architects with sculptor Sir Anthony
Caro.
Bridge due to open -
22/02/02
Our favourite
wobbly bridge is due to open to the public at 10am Friday morning, so if you're
around make sure you're part of the troubled bridge's history and be one of the
first to walk across the errr.Millennium Bridge.
Nearly two years after
it was closed for repairs, the bridge will open after a "secret" test carried
out under the cover of darkness to ensure the bridge doesn't wobble anymore.
London's Millennium Bridge is the first pedestrian river crossing over
the Thames in central London for more than a century.
Bridge tested in "secret" -
31/01/02
You would
have been forgiven for rubbing your eyes in wonderment at the sight of 2,000
office workers marching across the infamous Millenium Bridge last night.
Despite the engineers attempting to keep the wobbling bridge test a
secret, there was plenty of spectators and press present at 5.30pm when under
the cover of darkness bankers, lawyers, secretaries and the like marched across
to test whether the bridge still wobbled.
Fortunately, for the engineers
Arup, who have reportedly footed the �5million bill for the last 18 months to
steady the swaying bridge, it seems to be fixed. So what has stopped the
wobbled?
Apparently 91 dampers and shock absorbers placed beneath the
320-metre deck of the footbridge have done the trick. When the bridge opened
with great fan-fare 18 months ago there were reports of it swaying with such
forced that people were falling over and gripping the handrails in alarm.
One witness even reported that it was like "standing up in a rowboat on
a lake." The bridge has yet to be given the official go-ahead but it expected to
be reopened around Easter.
All that is required now is the approval of
two independent consultants, one of whom is Professor David Newland of Cambridge
University's civil engineering department.
Were you on the Millennium Bridge when it
wobbled? - 7/11/01
Adam Hart-Davis from the BBC Scienceshack is looking for people who were
on the Millenium Bridge when it wobbled.
Did you like it? Were you
seasick?
When the new footbridge over the Thames opened, everyone
flocked to have a go. Unfortunately human traffic set up vibrations in the
bridge that forced its closure.
Can it be fixed and what exactly is the
problem? Wobbling bridges aren't new, so why did this one produce huge shock
waves among the engineers? Were our walking patterns to blame? What would have
happened if cars not people crossed the bridge? Adam and his team investigate
what went wrong.
www.bbc.co.uk
Millenium Bridge Contractor Starts Work -
1/05/01
A contractor
has been appointed to fix the millennium bridge's swaying problem, as is
expected to commence work today, with site operations beginning in two weeks.
The solution, which will resolve the issue of excessive movement of the
bridge without compromising the original design, employs a combination of
viscous dampers and tuned mass dampers. The installation work is expected to be
completed by the end of the year.
Special Offers
