It is possible to descend from the tower using the barrier-free ramp or the 262-foot-long tunnel slide.
The unique feature of this project is the artificially created root cave below the tower, which offers insights into the world of the national park beneath the Earth's surface.
As with all five lookout towers previously built, eak, WIEHAG GmbH from Altheim, Austria was again in charge of the planning, structural engineering, construction, and assembly.
Structure
The lookout tower has the shape of a truncated cone that opens outward as it increases in height. The outer diameter is about 75 ft at the bottom and about 121 ft at the top.
The structure consists of an outer ring made of twelve curved glued-laminated timber beams. They are rotationally symmetrically arranged at the same distance from each other.
The tower can be accessed from the treetop trail, which leads through the cave beforehand. You can climb up to the viewing platform on a helix structure made of wood, with a maximum gradient of 6%. It is attached to the timber supports by steel cantilever beams. Between the individual steel cantilever beams, three glulam stringers covered with a wooden plank floor are fixed.
In the center of the tower is a steel pylon made of a round tube, fixed at the bottom. A spiral staircase made of steel, and a tunnel slide, are attached to it. The spiral staircase serves as an emergency and escape staircase.
The lookout tower is stiffened by a circumferential web made of steel diagonals and ring structures.
| Client |
Erlebnis Akademie AG www.eak-ag.de Stezka korunami stromů Krkonoše www.stezkakrkonose.cz |
| Architect | Architekturbüro Josef Stöger stoeger-koelbl.de |
| Planning, Structural Engineering, Construction | WIEHAG GmbH www.wiehag.com |
| Structural Analysis of Foundations | STATIKA Jihočeská stavebně konstrukční kancelář s.r.o. www.statikacb.cz |
