New Scheepsdale Bridge In Bruge (Belgium)

The Scheepsdale Bridge is a bridge in the Belgian city of Bruges. It is part of the N9 and crosses the Bruges-Ostend canal and connects the Scheepsdalelaan with the Blankenbergse and the Oostendse Steenweg. The bridge is managed by Waterwegen en Zeekanaal NV. Over the centuries, a succession of various bridges has been built in this location. In the 1920s, a Vierendeel swing bridge was built. This was demolished in 2009.

A new Scheepsdale bridge has been under construction from 2009 to the present. The new Scheepsdale Bridge is a very striking structure. It is like a rolling bascule bridge’. ‘With high, inclined roller arms (15 me-tres high), the bridge will be able to lift up sideways.’

The lifting movement occurs along the length axis of the bridge and across the axis of the canal. This is not done about a fixed pivot, but like the principle of the rolling bascule bridge, with a moving pivot consisting of an arched structure that rolls on the foundation. The new bridge will be much wider that the previous one and will have a separate bus lane and separate bicycle and pedestrian paths. For shipping, the central structure of the swing bridge is gone, increasing the passable width from 16 to 29 m. Delays will be much shorter for both shipping and for road traffic due to the faster tilting mechanism.

The sliding surfaces upon which the bridge rolls are made using the Teclite 100M composite bearing material from BBS. The bearing plates were mounted by BBS embedded in stainless steel supports.