Shuter Street Bridge in Toronto, Canada

• Length:  ~ 105.6 ft
• Width:  ~ 12.4 ft
• Height:  ~ 46 ft
• Weight:  ~ 25.8 t
• Number of Nodes:  975
• Members:  1,199
• Materials:  1
• Cross-Sections:  38

Model

3D Model

• 3D Viewer | Google
• 3D Viewer | Babylon
• Virtual Reality

Model | Steel Pedestrian Bridge

As people in Toronto mainly use the PATH system (an underground system of pedestrian paths, extending over a length of 17.3 miles), the town could be persuaded to grant the permit only on the grounds of architectural originality. The lightness of the bridge was achieved by curved and thermally prestressed panes of insulated glass as well as curved pipes crossing each other, together forming the supporting structure; thus, the construction appears different depending on the perspective.

Structure

The bridge was designed as a statically determinate framework because of different building movements and the regulation that introducing major forces into the building structure is not allowed. The fixed point, and thus the derivation of the horizontal forces, was placed on the side of the old building. The cross‑section of the bridge is elliptical. The supporting tube is formed by a number of parallel circular tubes intersecting with parallel circular tubes running in the opposite direction.

Design

The engineers were able to design the bridge according to DIN 18800, as agreed with the local test engineer. Loading, however, was determined and taken into account in accordance with local standards.

The bridge was calculated non-linearly as a 3D model in RSTAB. As the complete construction was welded, an equivalent model was used to determine the effective stiffnesses of nodes for analyzing the deformations.

Then, the nodal stiffnesses were built as releases into the RSTAB model. Furthermore, the deformation and stress design ratio of the total structure were determined. Finally, the most critical welding nodes were designed in RFEM using the calculated internal forces.