Kingsway Pedestrian Bridge

Stretching 44m across one of the City of Burnaby’s main thoroughfares, the Kingsway Pedestrian Bridge was designed to be the new focal point for a growing community. It connected a major shopping complex with burgeoning commercial and residential areas to the north.

Given the importance of avoiding traffic interruptions during construction – a key consideration of the client – the design team chose a quietly-elegant solution. The bridge would be a simple arch, with a post-tensioned concrete walkway suspended on steel tension rods. In the interests of economy, Fast + Epp tied the arch using the walkway itself, to resist the outward thrust and avoid costly buttresses.

The footbridge is believed to be the first time a bridge arch has been built using steel haunches in combination with a timber drop-in span. The timber portion of the arch involved bowing, twisting and assembling individual, flexible “spaghetti-thin” glue-laminated pieces to form a strong arch with elegant aesthetic appeal.

When it came time for construction, the entire wood portion of the bridge (including the thin steel plate roof covering) was prefabricated in a parking lot adjacent to the site. The assembly was lifted into place using two cranes, a speedy process that meant the road was closed for only a day.