Stratford Town Centre Link, London
Client: Westfield Shopping Towns
The Stratford Town Centre Link (STCL) provides a high quality pedestrian and public realm space that connects Westfield Shopping Centre with the existing facilities in Stratford. These two areas historically were severed by the major railway corridor at Stratford Regional Station.
The link crosses the railway in two spans of 64.3m, and provides a 12m wide clear corridor. It is a half through bridge structure, comprising Vierendeel trusses along each side. The trusses are characterised by having no triangulated elements and instead rely on frame action provided by the top and bottom chords and vertical elements, which are rigidly connected. For structural efficiency, the two main trusses vary in depth from a minimum at the ends of the bridge and are increased to
a maximum at the central pier.
The structure is fabricated from weathering steel, which, due to its stable rust layer, requires no painting. This has significant maintenance benefits in the railway
environment. The truss elements are so large that specially fabricated sections were required and provided the opportunity for visually interesting and varying truss members with irregular polygonal cross sections. Design was carried out during 2008 and 2009 and construction during 2010 and 2011.
The high sides to the structure protect the railway from falling or thrown objects. Special glazing tests, involving the dropping of a steel sphere from a height of 15m, were carried out to prove the integrity of the laminated glass to the approval authorities. The bridge lighting, which is simple yet striking, is effective in providing a well lit and non-threatening environment for users at night. An ingenious method of incremental launching was used for the bridge installation, which had to
be considered from an early stage in the bridge design. Showing considerable foresight, the Client commissioned a computer animation to clearly communicate the complex sequencing to the approval authorities and operatives. This culminated in the first known live bridge launch over an operational station in the UK.