Situated at the downstream of River Avon, the steel lattice girder bridge -B3118 Midland Road Bridge (ITV, 2019) has been the main inner-city routine that links the Lower Bristol Road to the downtown at Green Park. (SABRE, 2014) (Wikipedia, 2018)
In the 1870s, it was required to build a second railway go across the central area, (Buchanan, 2014) and the Midland Railway Company founded the previous Midland Bridge, which was approaching the terminus at the new Green Park Station, and it allowed access to the city center as well as the southern and western regions.
(Wikipedia, 2018) In 1905, the city corporation and the Bath Electric Tramways company had an agreement, and the tramways company invested for the current Midland Bridge as well as other roads around. (Wikipedia, 2018) (Mace’s Guide, 2017) The road bridge was increased to two sidewalks and its span expended from 6m to 11m. (Yashinsky, 2010)The former one was relocated and recreated as the Destructor Bridge across the River Avon near the west of the city.
(Wikipedia, 2018)
Services in the Green Park Station suspended in 1966. (Buchanan, 2014)The old station was revamped, market and Sainsbury’s food store was built in the early 1980s, (Heritage, 2014)and the Midland Bridge remained. (Wikipedia, 2018) A 1million pounds major refurbishment of the Midland Bridge about was carried out in 2015.1,800 liters of paint and 150 tonnes of girt was used to explore the metal surface, and the bridge should keep safe for years. (ITV, 2019) (British Council, 2015)
According to Councilor Tim Warren, The primacies of optimizing the local transport system is to let citizens, businesspeople, and tourists feel more convenient to get around the area, and the bridge needs to meet those priorities.
(ITV, 2019) The local bus (No.1 and No.5) might go over the bridge to bring people from the Oldfield and Twerton to the city center, (wiki2, 2019) and people who go shopping at Sainsbury can quickly get to that bridge through Pine way. (Wikipedia, 2018)The bridge is a disabled-friendly bridge as the slope is steady and the rump is quite long. And there are also two short cuts alone both sides the bridge where pedestrians can quickly get off the bridge to the green park or walk along the riversides. The support underneath the bridge is quite low, and it is quite dark underneath the deck so there might have the hazard of hurting head. Therefore it is not pleasant to walk underneath the bridge.
The structure of the bridge is not complicated and shows a sense of stability with the trusses and lattice girder structure; it does look a bit overdesign and bulky. And the support part is little hide at the end of the bridge but after all the bridge shows the function of the bridge through the apparent strength.
Proportions of the Bridge
Check the oblique angles of view do not create an opaque barrier. To prevent this, it is usual not to have more than 2 columns across the width of a bridge deck.
Used of the steel and lots of bracing let the bridge looks so heavy and the void is so less. With the protection of a breathing member, it is harder to look through the voids for the view around the Avon River. When the light shining on the bridge it turns gold and the water reflects its light to the bridge. It spans 53m, spans about There are longitudinal and transversal stiffness on the bridge and it can si the bridge depth is not quite thick but the transverse stiffness is bit overlap the walking road which might have a risk to hurt people work through there. The short bridge just has one simple span.
Order within the structure
The bridge is formed of repeated vertical lattice girder which is good to resisting bending and oblique trusses member at sides of the girder to show the beauty of order. At the edge of one another vertical member, there is a triangle shape flange which is tied by a long tube at the west side. Repetition of elements is a useful aesthetic trick, but beware not to overdo this. Truss bridge can be beautiful if there is an order to the elements.
The details of the bridge
The star shape of the handrail makes the bridge more aesthetic and the edge of the bridge is not with the triangle finish with one another. There are side stairs so that people can easily access to the Green Park and get down the bridge with those short cuts and walk to the bank of the River Avon.
The surrounding bridge is all metal and trusses style so it perfectly matches the surrounding areas. The bridge designer must what to build a bridge that matched the surrounding environment and the smooth truss matched the adjacent building and appropriated in the place. The base of the bridge is made of bath stone which matched the cityєs architecture sense and the color of the bridge fits well with the color of the vegetarian around.
Surface texture
The texture of the bridge is quite smooth without the metallic feels, and there is a matt finish on the road surface. The bridge abutment is wrapped by limestone which is very rough finishing. A smooth finish on fascia beams or slender piers.
Colour of components
The whole bridge body is painted in light grey so that the steel bridge looks not that heavy the handrail and the safety rail in the deck is portrayed to the black so the drivers can easily be defined and avoid attack the people walk at the side. The road is in dark color. When lights shining on the bridge a more subtle effect is possible if one uses shadows the lighting gives the impression of more slender piers supporting the deck.
Character
The bridge is admired by the people walk through the bridge and go through it. It looks nice at dark and shows a sense of beauty. It is one of the large bridges on the road and might attract people’s attention when they drive or walk around. It should make the public ask themselves hoe the bridge works.
It can be seen from the bottom of the bridge that people do some scrawls on the bridge and the bridge abutment which isn’t quite suitable for this historic city.
Although there is many repeated items the bridge is with many complexities and it looks quite mass when the people walk over the bridge. It could be simpler but complexity in some distance can stimulate visually, too much complexity causes chaos.
Summary
The most important rule of all is to build bridges that portray their function and structure in a simple, obvious way. By avoiding unnecessary structural confusion, interest is generated in the mind. Other refinements cannot convert an initially chaotic bridge into something of beauty.