Designed by Buro Happold and Knight Architects and conceived as an 'urban piazza', the Stratford Town Centre Link is an important gateway into the Olympic Park for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Connected to Westfield Stratford City to the north and Stratford regional train station and the town centre to the south, the high-profile position of the bridge demanded attention to safety, quality and ingenuity in delivery. The bridge crosses 11 railway lines as well as the platforms of Stratford regional station and a highway. Its geometry is governed by vertical clearances to the railway overhead-line equipment as well as horizontal clearances to the tracks to avoid design for onerous collision loading and Disability Discrimination Act compliance in terms of gradients. The required clear width of the bridge to allow for peak pedestrian flows during the Olympic Games is 12m. The space for intermediate supports was limited to one location – a redundant signal box, which was demolished in advance of the project. This dictated the need for two significant spans of 65m and ruled out certain methods of construction, including the use of overhead cranes and cable-stayed structures. Although constrained, there was space on the north of the railway to lay out and assemble the bridge in sections, which was then launched across the railway in a series of weekend possessions completed in July 2009. From a construction point of view, disruption to the railway needed to be minimised while difficult logistical constraints were overcome. Architecturally, the bridge needed to be of an appropriately high aesthetic quality while providing an open, yet secure, environment above the railway. The design comprises a ladder beam


75


VIVIENNE RAMSEY


Newham/Olympic Delivery Authority


Westfield managed to pull off the impossible on the Town Centre Link! It persuaded the railway inspectorate to let it have


glass sides. Usually see-through images of the railway lines are not allowed; you’re supposed to have solid parapets, but this is so much better...


3


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142