Zugbruecke

Draft of proposal

Draw Bridge (working title)

*not built

Draft for a draw bridge whose sides do not synchronously open and close. The draw brige was conceived for the crossing of the mouth of the Creek Braunebach into the River Seseke near Kamen and contains a pedestrian and bike lane. It is part of the art project "Über Wasser gehen" (Walk on Water) within the **Seseke-Renaturierungsprogramm (Renaturation of the River Seseke) and the European Capitol of Culture Ruhr 2010.

Project proposal:

For the flat basin of the mouth of the Creek Braunebach leading into the River Seseke we developed a 22 m (72,2 ft) long draw bridge which generously spans the only approx. 75 cm (25 in) wide Braunebach. The two halves of the bridge are not connected and are independently opened by hand. If a pedestrian lifts one of the halves, the bridge is only in one way passable and all travellers coming from the other side have to cross the creek via a small footpath with a few big stones in order to bring down the bridge.

* The original task for the design of the bridge only involved a bike and pedestrian bridge made with a simple construction. Within time it turned out that a far more expensive variation should be developed which allows larger utility vehicles of the Lippeverband to cross. The first calculation outlined exorbitant costs. In order to work out an alternative with a bypass road and also to obtain an independent comparison, we approached an engineering firm who managed to reduce the costs by half and only was slightly more expensive than a common concrete bridge.

We thank Carsten Tichelmann for his extraordinarly generous engagement; he developed free of charge a functioning bridge including the final statics according to our drafts.

Nevertheless, within a short period of time, the Lippeverband withdraw the support for the project. After half a year of planning phase and despite enormous engagement of the curator Billie Erlenkamp and a large encouragement of the City of Kamen, the project had to be ceased.

We were asked to propose an alternative which includes a conventional concrete bridge that is comissioned by the Lippeverband:

Ein stiller Ort hysterischer Besinnung
(A Place of Hysteric Contemplation)------------>

**Within the frame of the extensive project to renaturate the Seseke, the River was restored into a "naturnahen" (nearly natural) state. In the last 30-40 years the river was a hard-surfaced canal for the dumping of industry sewage out of the region. In the beginning of the reconstructions the riverbanks and watersides were highest danger zone and inaccessible for the citizens in the region.

© 2009 Ulrich Genth & Heike Mutter