2017 Taminabrücke Bofel - Tamina Bridge in Switzerland

(Satellite)

Kecko Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
[Note that his album also includes some construction photos.]

Highway Engineering Discoveries posted

After 4 years of construction, the largest arch bridge in Switzerland was launched for traffic after its official opening, on Thursday, 22th June 2017.

The Bridge Tamina Bofel (Tamina Bridge) is the centerpiece of a connecting road between the towns of Pfäfers and Valens in the region St. Gallen. The bridge is 417 meters long and crosses the Tamina Canyon at a height of 200 meters with a plane concrete arch with a span length of 260 meters and 35 meters high piles.

As the region of the Tamina Canyon near Boefel is protected as a conservation area, it was necessary to esteem a good fitting of the bridge into the terrain. In May 2007 a project competition was publicly advertised. The competition gained huge interests beyond the borders of Switzerland. The jury decided for Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner in an anonymous proceeding for the project “Tamina-Arch”.

The steep hillside, the high altitude above the valley floor and the existing geology challenged the Construction team technically and regarding design aspects. The overachieving goal of the design was, to create an engineering masterpiece, which fits gentle and precisely into the terrain and at the same time, develops due to its appearance a distinctive identity

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Highway Engineering Discoveries posted again

Tony Godshall commented on the second post above

Tony Godshall commented on the second post above

The above text was stolen (copied without attribution) from this web page.

Photo via AtlasOfPlaces, this page has a lot more photos

I did not appreciate how shallow the arch is until I saw this view.

TripAdvisor, this page has more photos

Diagram via HighestBridges
"The highest arch bridge ever built in Europe, the Tamina Bridge is also the only bridge in Switzerland to surpass the 200 meter height barrier....Dozens of bridge designs were studied before the asymmetrical concrete arch span with inclined spandrels was chosen."
[I didn't notice the asymmetrical nature of the arch until I saw this diagram. This web page contains many of the other designs that were proposed for the bridge in response to a public competition announced in 2007. This page also includes a lot of construction photos.]

HighestBridges

allplan, Photo: Civil engineering department of the canton of St. Gallen
The bridge is designed to withstand the forces caused by earthquakes, wind and a broken tension cable.

allplan, Diagram: LAP
The design firm Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner (LAP) used 3D modelling software provided by allplan.
The arch varies in depth from 4m at the anchors to 2m at the crest and the width varies from 9m to 5m.