The Unfoldable Bridge

1/3 images [Translate to English:] Die Brücke - fertig ausgeklappt [Translate to English:] Eine erfolgreiche Kooperation der ASFINAG und der TU Wien [Translate to English:] Eine erfolgreiche Kooperation der ASFINAG und der TU Wien A world premiere in Austria: The new bridge construction technology which was developed at TU Wien has now been successfully applied by ASFINAG during the construction of the Fürstenfeld Motorway There are many different methods for erecting bridges - but the new technique developed by TU Wien, the balanced lowering method, is quite spectacular: the bridge is not built horizontally, as would normally be case, but erected in a vertical position and then rotated into the horizontal position. The first large scale tests were carried out in 2010, since then the method has been refined and tuned until finally finding its first application by the ASFINAG for two bridges of the Fürstenfeld Motorway S7. With the erection process successfully completed for the Lahnbach Bridge, the 116 m long bridge over the Lafnitz was "unfolded" on the 27^th of February 2020. With no scaffolding needed this new bridge construction method not only saves time but also money and resources. The umbrella principle. "Depending on the size and location a variety of bridge building techniques are applied nowadays," Prof. Johann Kollegger of the Institute of Structural Engineering of TU Wien explains. If the bridge is not too high from the ground it can be erected using scaffolding.