Rotterdam Authorities Build Hundreds of Plastic Bridges

Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands, has 850 bridges for pedestrians and cyclists, made from steel, concrete or wood

As they degrade, the authorities replaced them with some made of plastic, writes FastCoExist.

This is a much faster alternative, considered to be offering real advantages for the environment. Rotterdam has chosen, moreover, to construct its roads with recycled plastic, which has lower carbon emissions than asphalt.

Using a fiber-reinforced polymer, a light plastic, the authorities can install a pedestrian bridge in an hour, says Dave Geensen, project manager of the town.

The construction of a bridge typically made of wood or steel, takes three weeks. For the construction of a plastic bridge, the building truck comes with it in the morning and departs before noon, and the bridge is there.

The latest Astel Bridge, installed in January, is very thin: though it has 19 meters long and 1.8 meters wide, it is three times lighter than a concrete one, the same size, and has more than half the weight of a similar steel bridge.

Using plastic for this purpose has an environmental advantage, because the steel and concrete manufacture consumes twice as much energy. Manufacturers also are experimenting construction with vegetable resin.

However, if the life of a wooden bridge is 25-30 years, the plastic can withstand 100 years. In addition, it does not rust and is easy to repair. Authorities in Rotterdam installed the first plastic bridge in 2009, now reaching a number of 90, more than any other city in the world.