BRIDGES

On a few occasions, the opportunity to think about a bridge has come my way. These are two designs. One is the Fish Bridge, conceived with Johnathan Dransfield during the Heartlands Project in Cornwall. It was a response to a competition for a lifting bridge in Scarborough. The other, the Turbine Bridge, or Electric Bridge, emerged from discussions with Ove Arup about the Solway Firth. I thought it might be fun (and instructive) to combine a bridge with turbines, which is why it's called the Electric Bridge.

The recent AI renderings are not entirely accurate, but if you compare the sketches with the original CAD drawings, you will see that the Fish Bridge is a cable-stayed structure. It lifts using a powered system, with a water accumulator housed within the onshore visitor centre. The same method was used for Tower Bridge in London and the Albert Dock in Liverpool. A jelly mould inspired the form; you can just make out the edge of this green element. As shown, people can walk through the fish, entering at the tail and exiting at the mouth, or vice versa. The lifting mechanism is a long, fishing-rod-shaped arm, with a hook that engages in the fish’s mouth—something that may not be obvious in the image.

The Turbine Bridge (or “Electric Bridge”) is, in most respects, a conventional piece of engineering. However, I did consider making it fully floating, subject to the tidal conditions in the Solway Firth. Look closely at the image, and you will also notice the footings of a former railway crossing of the inner Solway: the Solway Viaduct of the Solway Junction Railway, which ran between Bowness-on-Solway (Cumbria) and the Annan/Kirtlebridge area (Dumfries & Galloway). It opened for mineral traffic in September 1869, later carried passengers, closed to traffic in 1921, and was dismantled in the mid-1930s, although shoreline remnants are still visible.