The Hovenring is a suspended bicycle path roundabout in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. It is situated between the localities of Eindhoven, Veldhoven, and Meerhoven, which accounts for its name, and is the first of its kind in the world.
In order to improve the flow of traffic and improve safety, it was decided to completely separate motorized and bicycle traffic. In addition, it was decided to transform the roundabout for cars into a regular crossing of streets, to improve the flow of traffic. This left a decision to be made about what to do about the bicycle traffic. The city council of Eindhoven decided that they wanted to develop an eye-catching project, in keeping with ambitions of the Brainport top technology region (a knowledge economy-driven cooperative of the municipality in the Eindhoven metropolitan area).
The design for the Hovenring was made by the ipv Delft design. The name was chosen through a competition held among the population of Eindhoven and Veldhoven. Literally the name means "ring of the Hovens", referring to Eindhoven, Veldhoven and Meerhoven (the residential area of Eindhoven where the Hovenring is). In addition, the name refers to the suspended ring of the Hovenring, as well as to the ring and needle (the central pylon) of lights that are formed by the lights that adorn the construction. With the addition of the lights, the name also refers to Eindhoven's unofficial designation of "city of lights".
The construction started on 11 February 2011. The new crossing was opened on 30 December 2011. About a week later, the crossing was again closed for all traffic, because the suspension cables were found to vibrate in a manner that was considered harmful. The Hovenring was finally opened to the public on 29 June 2012.
It was finally determined that the problem was vortex of wind forming in the lee of the cables, causing far heavier than expected during design. A solution was found by applying additional Shock absorber on the cables. Unfortunately this caused an extra delay of a month in the opening of the bridge, since the contractor initially mounted the dampers incorrectly.
The construction is out of concrete rather than steel, and support is more conventional. Considering the Eindhoven ring was designed from 2008 onwards, the designs may very well have been conceived independently of each other. External link: aerial view of the ring on Google maps
A comparison must also be made with the 2011 circular pedestrian overpass of Lujiazui in the Pudong district of Shanghai Elevating the concept of Roundabouts Cipriani Charles Designs Circular Pedestrian Bridge in Lujiazui, China Amusing Planet and with a similar overpass from 2012 in Rzeszów, Poland.
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