footbridge over the ronda de dalt, barcelona
The Ronda de Dalt is practically an urban motorway which rings the city of Barcelona; its northern stretch crosses the point where the foot of the Collserola range of hills meets the city.
Certain stretches of the ring road rest on uneven ground, pointing up the marked difference in level between the two sides. The footbridge crosses one of these stretches. The purpose of the bridge is to join the Ronda slip roads, with a 9-metre difference between them, in order to make it easy for pedestrians to negotiate.
The difference in level made it impossible to build a free passage from one side to the other which would respect the headroom of the Ronda. The solution which was finally adopted was to extend the walkway horizontally from the higher edge, on the sloping side, and suspend it from a great height on the opposite side, overlooking the city and the sea. The resulting footbridge provides a splendid vantage point which overlooks its surroundings, created by a process of recognising and accurately establishing the most appropriate level for its construction.
The systems for communicating the walkway with the roadsides were specially designed. On the side of the hills, this took the form of adapting it to the lie of the land, whereas the solution on the sea side required greater ingenuity, involving the construction of a ramp and a lift which are placed against the deck like autonomous components.