Laval station gets a new footbridge designed by Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes
The Paris-based practice Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes has completed the footbridge at Laval SNCF station. Selected as competition winner in December 2012, the footbridge opened to the public in December 2018 at a total cost of €5,066,000. Clad in French timber, it has received the Prix Régional de la construction bois (regional timber construction award).
The purpose of the structure is to open up the districts behind the station. Cyclists are well catered for, with a generously wide passage.
The footbridge offers a broad panorama over the town while shielding users from wind and rain, thanks to a canopy of cross-laminated pine panels and zinc, fixed to glulam Douglas fir portal frames.
The structure is lightened by an open-slatted treatment in glulam oak, which also provides views of the trains. The architects chose French oak, thereby avoiding imported timber.
A 95-metre-long footbridge
The structural design of the footbridge was carried out by the engineering consultancy Schlaich Bergermann und Partner. Measuring 95 metres long by 8 metres wide, the Laval station footbridge is made up of two longitudinal box sections joined by T-beams spaced 2.30 m apart.
Next year, the architects will deliver another footbridge, this time over the tracks of Angers Saint-Laud TGV station.
Gallery
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- © David Boureau
- © Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes