Table bridge

Table bridge

Open
Ancestor Plate girder bridge,
Related Lift bridge, bascule bridge, submersible bridge
Descendant None
Carries Automobile, pedestrians
Span range Short
Material Steel
Movable Yes
Design effort Medium
Falsework required No

A table bridge is a moveable bridge in which the deck moves along the vertical axis. Hydraulic pillars under the bridge raise the bridge deck to allow barge traffic to pass beneath it. In contrast to a lift bridge, where the deck is pulled upwards along towers, the deck of a table bridge is pushed upwards by otherwise hidden pillars. The name originates from the fact that when open it resembles a table.

The total space required by a table bridge is hardly larger than the bridge deck, which is not the case with a thrust bridge. Unlike a lift bridge this type has only slight visual impact upon its surroundings when closed for use by road traffic. This is very well demonstrated by the Pont levant Notre Dame at Tournai in Belgium.

Tournai Pont levant Notre Dame

A table bridge in operation

Left: Looking across the bridge that crosses the river Scheldt (in front of the first row of buildings); Center: Seen from the same viewpoint, the bridge is up; Right: Overlooking the canalized river, a self-propelled canal boat passes

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, March 16, 2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.