MATERIAL: ALTERNATIVE
GLASS, STEEL AND A NATURAL WONDER
The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge and walkway that suspends visitors 4,000ft above the Colorado river and canyon floor, providing an unparalleled view of nature. Tomorrow’s Flooring Editor, Grace Holliday, found out more about the construction and the copious amounts of materials used on location at one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
WHY WAS THE SKYWALK BUILT? In 1988, the Hualapai Indian Tribe, who occupied more than five million acres of land since 1883, established Grand Canyon Resort Corporation (GCRC), welcoming millions of visitors each year to tour the area, including the nearby lodge, ranch and river rafting company. To further increase tourism in the area, the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a glass bridge, opened seven years ago, on the 28th March 2007.
HOW WAS IT CONSTRUCTED? The deck of the Skywalk has been made with four layers of Saint-Gobain Diamant low iron glass with DuPont SentryGlas interlayer. In May 2011, just over four years after it first opened, engineers replaced the panels for the first time, each weighing 1,800lb. Each specially
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manufactured pane is 2.5 inches thick and comprises five individual glass sheets bonded together. Every floor pane can support 100lb per square foot, which is equivalent to over 822 people weighing 91kgs each, but only 120 visitors are allowed on the bridge at any one time.
HOW BIG IS IT? The deck width is just over 10ft. The Skywalk glass railings were made with the same glass as the deck, but fewer layers (two), bent to follow the walkway’s curvature. The glass railings are over 5ft tall and have been designed for high wind pressures. The overall Skywalk width is 65ft, and the Skywalk length extending out from the canyon wall is 70ft.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION? Entrepreneur David Jinohipadhus had
HEIGHT: 4,000ft above the Colorado River and Canyon floor
WEIGHT: Over 1.2 million pounds
MATERIALS: One million pounds of steel and 83,000 pounds of glass
WIDTH: 25ft
DEPTH: 70ft
SHAPE: Horseshoe
COST: £1.86 million to build
FOOTFALL: 445,000 tourists per year
www.tomorrowsflooring.com
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