| Europe’s first screwless plastic bridge has now opened - made from a slab of fibreglass-reinforced polymer glued onto two steel bearers.
While a plastic bridge was built across the M6 motorway in Lancashire, England, in 2006 the new bridge is the first to be built without nails or screws.
As it is made from plastic, the bridge near Friedberg, in the German state of Hesse, is expected to last for up to 50 years before needing repair.
Trade body PlasticEurope said conventional reinforced concrete bridges can often need extensive repair after just 15 to 20 years.
And the 27 metre long by five metre wide bridge weighing 80 tonnes was constructed in just one day. This was due to the fact that the bridge was prefabricated off-site.
PlasticsEurope added: “Fibre reinforced plastic will play an important role in bridge construction.
“For while conventional reinforced-concrete bridges require protracted construction times and disrupt traffic for a correspondingly long period, this bridge was prefabricated and then transported as a unit to the construction site.”
The bridge meets the new 2010 Eurocode standards for public construction. |
