Bridge Design

5Aesthetics and Environmental Integration

5.1 Introduction

The roles of aesthetics and environmental integration in bridge design are recognized nowadays as key parameters in any design or design and build tender. Cost and execution methods are no longer adopted as unique parameters for comparing different bridge solutions. Aesthetics is taken into consideration like other criteria related to structural, execution and durability aspects.

Design options must reflect equilibrium between functional requirements, structural safety and durability, cost, planning for execution, aesthetics and environmental integration. If most of these aspects may be compared on basis of objective criteria, aesthetics, and environmental integration may be quite subjective. Apart from this, an even more difficult aspect to define is the ‘weight’ of an aesthetic parameter to compare bridge solutions.

The ‘cost of aesthetics’ in a bridge project is not easy to define even if some attempts have been made. Minimum values in the order of 10% have been mentioned [1] as very often accepted in design‐built competitions. However, this aspect can not be accepted without taking in to consideration the bridge site and the way the bridge is seen. An urban bridge requires more aesthetics requirements than, for example, a highway viaduct integrated in a site where bridge views are rare. Bridge design should therefore be the outcome of scientific and technological progress respecting integration in the environment ...