Demolishing and rebuilding the Hämeensilta -bridge (part 3)

About the sound

In Tampere the main road is called Hämeenkatu. It crosses the city from the railwaystation in the east to Aleksanterin kirkko (Church of Alexander) in the west. The road is about 1 km in length and over 20 meters wide. The road goes over the Tammerkoski rapids in a place, where there has been a bridge since at least the 16th century. The most recent bridge was completed in 1929 and it is 68 meter long. The arches of the bridge are made of concrete and they are coated with red granite.

Because the bridge was built 90 years ago for completely different traffic and had suffer some structural damage, it was decided that the bridge should be rebuilt as a part of the tramway works. When the bridge is finished, it should look similar with the old one, but have completely new inside structure and rails for the tram. During the spring 2019 the demolishion work started at the bridge, but because the importance for the traffic this is done one so that part of the bridge is still in use. For pedestrians and cyclists a temporary wooden bridge was built nearby.

The sound is recorded from the western end of the bridge. A new layers of concrete is leveled over the steel reinforcement bars which will form the new arc of the bridge. Two cranes - one in each end of the bridge - are used to transport the ready-mixed concrete in right place from the mixer trucks.

Sound, video and photo: Kimmo Kestinen