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Designed with Dlubal Software
Skywalk Allgäu, a Tree-top
Walk in Southern Germany
Taking a walk through tree tops and
enjoying the view over a breath-taking
landscape has been made possible
since spring-time in Scheidegg, a
small German town near Lake Constance. The skywalk allgäu is a path
with a length of about 500 m, installed
in the height of 15 to 30 m above
ground, leading through the treetops
of the Allgäu Alps. The path construction built at approx. 1,000 m above
mean sea level consists of cablestayed and suspension bridge constructions. Furthermore, it is supported by 14 towers guyed with cables.
The central point and major tourist
attraction is the look-out tower which
is 50 m high, offering visitors a wonderful view over the Alps, the Prealps
and Lake Constance. The structural
analysis of the entire steel construction was carried out with RFEM by the
Dlubal customer Meyer+Schubart.
Structural System
The look-out construction has a triangular floor plan and pipe columns
with a diameter of 508 mm which are
coupled with tubular cross bars and
bracings in several planes.
Entire structure displayed in RFEM (screen shot: Dlubal)
or elevator with glass panes visitors
can access the path.
Another tower construction, which is
smaller having a height of approx. 40
m, is also based on a triangular floor
plan (on the right in the picture
above). The tower is significant for the
stiffening of the structural system and
represents a fixed-point for the connected access to the stairway (bridle
path). The bridle path is a cable-stayed
construction with three pylons that is
less prone to vibration compared to
the construction of the suspension
bridge, which is especially important
for a safe use of the stairway.
Depending on the span lengths, the
suspension cables of the suspension
bridge construction have a diameter
of 28.3 to 36.3 mm. To prevent the guy
lines with a length of up to 68 m from
oscillating due to aerodynamic effects,
they are partially stabilized with auxiliary cables which are thinner than the
main cables.
Finally, it is worth noting that the
German company Biedenkapp
Stahlbau has won the M&T Metal
Construction Price of the year 2011 in
the category for steel constructions.
The following companies participated
in the construction:
Building owner
Skywalk allgäu gemeinnützige GmbH
Architect
Karlheinz Thurm, Stetten,
Germany
Structural analysis and
final planning
Meyer+Schubart, Wunstorf, Germany
www.meyer-schubart.de
Construction work
Biedenkapp Stahlbau
GmbH, Wangen, Germany
Look-out tower (photo: © skywalk allgäu)
At a level of 30 m, the tower is additionally stabilized by full locked cables
PV 150 manufactured by the German
company Pfeifer. By using the stairway
Software for Structural and Dynamic Analysis
Suspension bridge construction of the path
(photo: © skywalk allgäu)
Software
Dlubal Engineering Software, Tiefenbach, Germany
www.dlubal.com