Fort Worth to build unique pedestrian bridge spanning Trinity River

by Kevin Buchanan of West and Clear

By 2010, the slender white structure shown above will be elegantly hanging over the Trinity River just south of the Lancaster Avenue bridge. It’s the Phyllis Tilley Memorial Pedestrian Bridge, and besides being an important new link in the Trinity Trails and the latest aspect of the Trinity River Vision to come to fruition, it’s also something of an architectural milestone in the US.

The Phyllis Tilley Bridge is named after the founder of Streams and Valleys, Inc. Founded in the ’60s, Streams and Valleys seeks the continued beautification and development of the Trinity River and its banks. When the time came to create a new pedestrian bridge over the river, to link Trinity Park, the So7 development, and the rest of the new developments in the Cultural District to a new trail that will be built along Forest Park Blvd., Ms. Tilley was a natural choice for a namesake.

The new bridge has been designed by Miguel Rosales of Boston. Rosales is a specialist in creating elegant modern bridges, and the new Phyllis Tilley Bridge will be unique.

It’s a variant of the “stress ribbon” type of bridge. In a stress ribbon bridge, many steel ribbons are anchored in the rock at each end of the span, and concrete decking is applied. The ribbons are tensioned, and create a strong structure that is only a handful of inches thick. Some designs are self-supported, some are cable-supported, and some - like this one - are supported by an arch or arches. The Phyllis Tilley Bridge will be the first single arch-supported stress ribbon bridge in the United States, from what I’ve been told, which makes it rather special.

The bridge’s design is decidedly modern, with subtle references to Bing Thom’s new Trinity River Vision bridges for Henderson, White Settlement, and Main, but manages to evoke the arches of famed Fort Worth historical bridges like the Paddock Viaduct and, especially, the Lancaster Avenue Bridge to the north. It’s not overtly flashy or attention-grabbing, which is fine by me. It’s respectful of its context, yet still fresh and unique.

Construction of the Phyllis Tilley Memorial Pedestrian Bridge is expected to be completed in 2009 or 2010. Here are some more renderings courtesy of the Trinity River Vision: