First flax Smart Circular Bridge opened
The first Smart Circular Bridge was opened on April 22 at the Floriade in the Dutch city of Almere. The bridge was developed by an international team under the Interreg NWE Smart Circular Bridge project and is largely made of flax.
Flax has been used for thousands of years in the form of clothing, bags or robust ship ropes. Now these plant fibbers are experiencing a renaissance as a biobased building material. In combination with a special bioresin, a light and very stable material can be made with properties comparable to those of aluminium or light steel.
In addition to the 100 percent natural flax fibres, the resin will also come from non-fossil sources as much as possible. The share of the bioresin is currently still 25 percent for the first bridge, but this will increase to 60 percent or more for the following bridges.
The first ‘Smart Circular Bridge’ has a span of 15 meters and has been realized by an international consortium of fifteen partners led by Eindhoven University of Technology.
The project team consists of five universities, seven innovative companies (including the Dutch firms Van Hattum & Blakjevoort and FiberCore Europe BV and three municipalities.
