Bridging Infrastructure; A Broad Study, Applied On Älvängen

Abstract

As society has developed and expanded, the transport network has grown. The small, simple path has turned into a street, and today that street is a motorway that runs straight through the community. This is a common sight in towns that have grown with the car, and it’s a structure that creates infrastructure barriers. An obstacle along someone’s path, creating barrier effects. This structure exists today in Älvängen. The motorway and railway separate large areas next to the town centre, but the barrier effects can be considered minor as there is currently no attraction to the separated areas. This may change if the municipality’s visions for the future are realised. How can barrier effects then be prevented when the need to cross the motorway and railway is created? The foundation of the thesis is based on two theoretial oriented parts, one of which has been to test whether the conceptual model of barrier effects developed by Job van Eldijk as part of his research on infrastructure barriers can be used to develop a needs specification for a specific location, in this case Älvängen. The second part is a study of reference projects, using research for design as a methodology. How have infrastructure barriers been dealt with in different places around the world, and what can we learn from this? The lessons learned from the reference projects have then been used to create a number of design principles that should be taken into account and used when designing new pedestrian and cycle bridges with the aim of reducing barriers. These design principles have then been applied, together with the needs identified for Älvängen, to create a proposal for a new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the motorway and railway in Älvängen. A new pedestrian and cycle bridge that will help the residents of Älvängen to travel between the town centre and the green areas along the Göta Älv river, while minimising any future barrier effects that may arise. Finally, the lessons learned from the project as a whole are summarised, with a strong focus on footbridges, which have become the core of the project.