The World’s First Bio-composite Bridge

News- In October 2016, students from the Dutch universities TU/e (Eindhoven), TU Delft, Avans (Breda, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and Tilburg), and the Eindhoven’s vocational colleges built a footbridge on the TU/e campus. The unique thing about this bridge was not that it was built on the TU/e campus, but that it was made from a biocomposite material that included flax, and it was the world’s first biocomposite bridge

Flax is a material that has been with us for thousands of years in the form of clothing, sacks, and ropes for ships. Nowadays, this old material has been ‘rediscovered’, and could become the building material of the future. The Eindhoven University of Technology-led EU project ‘Smart Circular Bridge’ recognizes this potential by building three city bridges made from a biocomposite material consisting of flax and a special bio-resin. This material is light and highly stable with properties comparable to aluminium or light steel. The first city bridge is now in place in Almere

The pedestrian bridge in Almere is 15 metres in length and can easily carry the weight of 275 people at once, and has been realized at the Floriade 2022 International Horticulture Exhibition in Almere. The bridge connects two parts of the exhibition

Apart from the 100 % natural flax fibres, the resin used to hold the fibres together will also come from non-fossil sources as much as possible. The proportion of bioresin in the total amount of resin used is 25 % for the first bridge in Almere, but it will reach 60 % or more for the follow-up bridges

07.04.2022

Ref: www.tue.nl

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