Ney&Partners: Inauguration of the Île-Parc Girodet footbridge, France

Ney&Partners inaugurates a new footbridge in France. This 246 m long bridge (106 m in steel, 120 m concrete, 20 m viewpoint) spans the A7-highway, known as the ‘Autoroute du soleil’. It is much more than a signal or landmark on the motorway. The pedestrian bridge reconnects the city to the banks of the Rhone and the Girodet island, which had been cut off with the construction of the motorway since 1965. The entire public space was redesigned as a park landscape by Michel Devignes Paysagiste. Ney & Partners won the architecture & engineering competition back in 2016. The design pays utmost attention to the smooth integration into the city fabric. The routing, the experience of the walk, the viewpoint and the connecting with nature was carefully taken into account. The technical challenges were quite stringent especially as an old footbridge had to be removed on the same spot and the interruption of traffic on the A7 had to be kept to a minimum.