Betar

Covilhã Public Garden Lift

• Location: Covilhã, Portugal
• Solution: Bridges, Geotechnics, Infrastructure and Transport
• Type: Footbridges and public lifts, Geotechnical projects, Urbanism, environment and public areas
• Architecture: Arpas
• Client: Covilhã City Hall
• Scope: Foundations and structure, sewerage and water supply, retaining structure (with Geotest)
• Project: 2010/2011
• Construction: 2015
• Photography: Liftech / ARPAS
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The structure provides the connection of the Public Garden, at elevation 664.12, and the Av. Marques de Ávila and Bolama Square, next to the new bridge over the Ribeira da Carpinteira, at elevation 620.00, through two footbridges and two vertical lifts, placed in a straight alignment. Footbridges are self-supporting steel structures, placed between the abutment in the upper platform and the reinforced concrete cores for the lift shafts. Bracings are provided by crossbars and diagonals in steel profiles. For the lower footbridge, to reduce the free span, a column-wall was introduced, with a cross section of 3.0mx0.4m, located at an intermediate platform.

The first footbridge has a 15.95m span. The second footbridge has a first span of 24.16m, to the intermediate support column-wall, and a second span of 18.22m.

A retaining wall structure was used for ground retention at the back of the garage, providing the construction in the platform at elevation 620.00. A Berlin-type wall was constructed, supported by two levels of permanent ground anchors.