Driving over the Van Brienenoord Bridge, the heart of many Rotterdammers will beat faster: there it appears, the skyline of Rotterdam! But this attraction is in danger of disappearing. The bridge will have crash barriers that are twice as high, which will considerably obstruct the view of the city.
The adjustments are part of the major renovation that awaits the outdated bridge from 2025. The new crash barriers on the side of both arch bridges will be 1.5 meters high – now they are 75 centimeters high. As a result, motorists have less of a view of the Rotterdam skyline or, from the other direction, of the Kuip. “We opted for the most open construction possible. But visibility will decrease slightly,” confirms a spokesman for Rijkswaterstaat.
According to the bridge manager, this is necessary due to stricter safety requirements. High guardrails are less likely to cause a crashed truck to tip over the guardrail and hit the bridge hangers.
The experience
The matter was discussed in the Welstandscommissie this week. Rijkswaterstaat showed an animation film of a ride over the new bridge. When asked about the view, the answer was that ‘the experience does indeed diminish’. That did not go down well and Rijkswaterstaat was instructed to take a closer look at this. “We are not asking for any concessions to safety, but to investigate to what extent the view can be preserved,” says Evert Kolpa of the Welstandscommissie. “Because the view of Rotterdam from the Van Brienenoord Bridge is experienced by many people as a highlight.”
The color is also a point of discussion. Rijkswaterstaat wants to paint the bridge in steel blue-grey, a typical ‘engineer’s colour’. A poll on AD.nl showed that 77 percent of readers think this is a good choice.
The Van Brienenoord Bridge is due for a major renovation, but it will probably destroy the most beautiful attraction of the bridge: the pheno
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