Lille Langebro

A damaged crane delayed the harbors newest bridge.

“Little Langebro” is a new bike and pedestrian bridge north of Langebro bridge in Copenhagen. It connects the old Brewery Site near Vester Voldgade with Langebrogade on the Amager side, providing a new alternative to the high-traffic Langebro bridge. The bridge opened in the summer of 2019 – one year later than expected.

Damaged Bridge Span Elements

The elements for the new bridge were produced and ready for transport by sea to Copenhagen from the factory in The Netherlands when the unthinkable happened. As the crane was loading the four steel bridge spans onto a pram at Hollandia BV in Schaardijk, Rotterdam, the crane broke and one bridge unit fell on top of the other. Both were catastrophically damaged.

And unfortunately, the factory had just destroyed the molds for the bridge spans, so they had to start the lengthy process of recreating the bridge units from scratch.

Double Swing Bridge

Nevertheless, Lille Langebro became quite an impressive bridge when it finally opened in this historical location.

The architects WilkinsonEyre and Urban Agency have joined forces with engineering firm BuroHappold on the design of the curved bridge. It spans 35 meters across the harbor and takes the form of a double swing bridge. The two elements in the middle will be able to rotate 90 degrees to allow boats to sail through. The runner-up in the architecture competition was Dissing + Weitling, which proposed a drawbridge with two elements that would open vertically in contrast to WilkinsonEyre’s solution with a horizontal opening.