Floriade Bridges Showcase Circular Infrastructure

The bridges are a key feature of the Floriade Expo 2022 legacy, which is transforming the 60-hectare site in Almere into a new green residential district named 'Hortus'. This urban development plan, designed by MVRDV, will eventually feature 660 homes integrated into the expo's existing green infrastructure, including a vast arboretum. One of the key structures, the "Smart Circular Bridge," is a 15-meter span for pedestrians and cyclists made from a bio-composite of flax fibers and a special bio-resin. Developed by a 15-partner European Union project led by the Eindhoven University of Technology, the material has properties comparable to aluminum or steel. The project is a testbed for new materials, with two more bridges planned for Germany and another in Bergen op Zoom. To monitor the novel material's performance, the bio-composite bridge is embedded with nearly 100 sensors. These sensors provide real-time data on material strain and vibrations as people cross, which is then analyzed using AI to understand how the structure behaves and ages under various conditions. This data is crucial for developing a bridge management system for future bio-based constructions. Other bridges on the site also champion circularity, with decks and beams made from recycled plastic sourced from Almere, including materials like soft drink bottles. The design process employed reverse engineering, starting with the available recycled materials to determine their best use, and even the foundations were constructed from discarded pipe piles. This project is part of a larger Dutch national strategy to tackle the 85,000 bridges and viaducts needing replacement or renovation. The Bruggencampus initiative uses the Floriade project as a living lab to innovate in reusing existing bridge materials and optimizing design and maintenance through a shared digital twin, or Common Data Environment. The material passports used for the bridges are a central tool in the Netherlands' push for a fully circular economy by 2050. The Dutch government is incentivizing their use through tax rebates and considering making them mandatory for new buildings. This digital documentation, championed by platforms like Madaster, details a building's components, making future reuse significantly easier.