Longest 3D-printed bridge of the world

The longest 3D-printed pedestrian bridge in the world will soon be realised in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The project is an initiative of Rijkswaterstaat, and the design is coming from Michiel van der Kley. The Eindhoven University of Technology is involved as knowledge partner, and BAM, Dywidag, Weber Beamix, Summum Engineering and Witteveen+Bos are involved as industry partners.

Witteveen+Bos did the structural design and analysis of the bridge, backed by a complex parametric model coming from Summum Engineering. “3D printing offers greater design freedom, but it also brings new challenges,” said Steven Delfgaauw of Witteveen + Bos. “Because how do you approach structural safety and how do you calculate such shapes? And what input is needed for the 3D printer? For that, the form-free design must be “rationalized”, and that is possible with the help of a “parametric model”. With the output of that model, Witteveen+Bos analysed the complex shape of the structure. The results of the parametric model are also directly used as input for the 3D-printer.”

The complete bridge is 3D-printed in the 3D print factory, a collaboration of the companies BAM and Weber Beamix.