An Insight Into the Development of Timber Bridges in Norway and Sweden

Abstract

Timber has historically played an important role as a building material for bridge construction both in Norway and Sweden. Although a decline was seen due to rise of other competing materials such as steel and concrete over the past century, it has regained popularity in recent decades due to pioneer developments in timber engineering including glued laminated timber and stress-laminated timber decks. There has been a specific focus on development of timber bridges in the Nordic countries after a Nordic Timber Bridge Project was started in 1994. Hundreds of bridges have been constructed throughout these countries including both pedestrian and heavy traffic bridges thereafter. Although the information about the number and type of these bridges can be found on several public administration sources, the information is very scattered and difficult to interpret. In the current study, several sources and databases were used to collect data on timber bridges in Norway and Sweden. Based on the collected data, a comparative view of the development of timber bridges in the two countries is presented with main focus on modern timber bridges built after year 2000. Detailed statistics are included in the study regarding year of construction, type of traffic, bridge types and bridge lengths. Discussions are presented in the end with focus on current trends and possible outlooks for use of timber bridges.