Darling Harbour Pedestrian Crossing

Sydney, Australia

2013

 

The Darling Harbor Bridge Concept, a 300m long crossing at the mouth of Darling Bay, was proposed as a connector between the development at Barangaroo and new development in Pyrmont and The Star Casino, This project was commissioned by one of the Star Casino bidders to enhance pedestrian access to the property. The crossing would enable connection and contribute to a strong pedestrian environment on both sides of the bay allowing access from Ballaarat Park and surrounding areas to the new Bangaroo development site. 

The site of the bridge was at the narrowest point of the entry to Pyrmont Bay directly west of the City Center. The pedestrian crossing (with consideration for light vehicular/emergency traffic) would cross Darling Bay, a busy maritime waterway with private boat and ferry traffic. The bridge design criteria resulted in two options: 
 

Option 1. A fixed elevated structure with 50 feet of free board and the infrastructure at each approach 
Option 2. A solution aligned with the elevation with the roadways on both banks with an operable component to allow water traffic to pass. . 
The cost of the required infrastructure and the scale of the elevation changes for the pedestrian movements in option 1 were counter to the overall concept and and use of the structure. Option 2 was selected for further study.

 

Bascule Cable Stay Bridge

The final proposal is for a cable stayed bascule type bridge. The geometry was developed so that the weight of the mast structure would counterbalance the roadway component allowing for the structure to balance and pivot along the short horizontal axis. The comparatively  light balanced "V" shaped structure will require operations hourly to accommodate the water traffic. The mechanics of the structure was intended to opened at different aspects to accommodate different sizes of watercraft minimizing the closure to pedestrian traffic. To fully open or close, the operation will take 4 minutes. 

​

This project was designed by Steve Chucovich while consulting at Buro Happold

​