By David Fowler, Bedford Tour Guides www.bedfordtourguides.org
The Suspension Bridge has always presented a problem to the disabled and to pushchairs, so it was no surprise when a public consultation carried out in 1990 emphasised the situation, together with a desire to draw more visitors into Russell Park and improve access for the River Festival. The Borough Council decided to spend over £1 million on “Embankment Renaissance 1995” rejuvenating the whole embankment area, our ”Jewel in the Crown”, part of that sum was to be spent on a new footbridge over the River.
A RIBA sponsored design competition was set up to reinterpret John Webster’s 1888 Suspension Bridge, with a new river crossing which would similarly mark the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. The competition amazingly drew 79 national and international entries, all were exhibited anonymously and the judge’s unanimous verdict was that the joint design by the London Architects Wilkinson Eyre and Jan Bobrowski, Engineers, was the winner. This top rated architectural practice has since won many awards, including that for the “Blinking Eye” footbridge over the River Tyne and is currently working on the refurbishment of Battersea Power Station.
The design was for 30m span parabolic tube arches set at 90° in a butterfly position, supporting the timber deck with diagonal steel tension rods. There were many excellent design details, floodlights were recessed into the concrete abutments and there was fibre optic lighting provided to the deck. Discussions were held with the Environment Agency to reduce the head room from a standard 3m to a more fitting 2.4m, but the south side ramp could not turn immediately to follow the footpath, it had to follow the flood flows towards Longholme Lake. Compensatory excavation had to be carried out to replace the ramp footprint that would be lost in a flood! The bridge was built in Sussex by The Littlehampton Welding Co who arrived on site to erect the bridge using two mobile cranes in September 1997. It was quite difficult to determine the position of the foundations bolts to the bottom flange of the bow tube which was quite flexible, but the arches were landed after a couple of goes. It was opened by Mayor Frank Garrick in November 1997 and a competition was run to find a name –“Butterfly Bridge” being the winner.
On 18th of June 1998 the Prince of Wales accompanied by Mayor Tony Ruffin officially opened the Butterfly Bridge.
