DeSimone Celebrates Opening of West Park Bridge

The new West Park Footbridge and waterside works in Long Eaton, Derbyshire has officially opened for public use.

The 121-meter-long steel suspension bridge curves elegantly across the Erewash canal, replacing a decaying cast iron 1913 bridge and adding a waterside terrace with a 100-seat performance space, community event space, and a cantilevered deck for launching kayaks and canoes.

The red balustrade references Long Eaton’s lacemaking history by incorporating a typical pattern motif, with the red representing the thread used by crafters to mark mistakes in their work. Combined with steel elements, the bridge when viewed from afar looks like lacemaking in progress.

Fabricated in four sections, assembled on site, and lifted in, the bridge is supported by eighteen cross beams, hung on fourteen hanger bars to the outside of a 16-meter-tall, 24-meter-wide, 610mm CHS arch inclined at 24 degrees to the vertical. The inside of the ramp is supported by a 250mm SHS torsion beam creating propped cantilever deck beams. The torsion beam is connected by a triangular prop arrangement back to the arch base. The main span therefore only connects to the ground through two piled bolted supports.

Designed through parametric modeling, our structural engineers created a 3D model responding to an unlimited number of possible arrangements without continual redrafting, allowing us to provide consistent feedback which was incorporated into the overall design. This approach was vital to completing the project on budget and on schedule.

DeSimone Principals Darren Paine and Deborah Paine attended the event, along with representatives from the Erewash Borough Council (developer), Gagarin Studio (architect), Stepnell (GC), and Beaver Bridges (fabricator).