Batavia Bridge

About

The Batavia Bridge is a movable bicycle and footbridge over the Handelsdok in Ghent. The bridge was officially opened on 30 June 2012. It connects Stapelplein with Koopvaardijlaan, it is the first of three bicycle bridges originally planned to unlock the new Oude Dokken district. Of these three bridges, two are now in use; The third is out of the question. The bridge was designed by Dietmar Fichtinger Architectes. The master plan was from the Dutch Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and the works were carried out by the Flemish government (Waterwegen en Zeekanaal). In May 2022 the bridge was closed for a day due to a mechanical failure at one of the moving hinges at the bottom. To restore that mechanism, the bridge is closed for a week from 5 July 2022. For a second bicycle bridge over the Handelsdok, called Matadibrug, the Flemish government started the licensing and contracting phase in 2019. Eventually the works started at the beginning of 2023 and the bridge was inaugurated on December 16, 2023.

Technical highlights: The bridge consists of three parts, two fixed parts and one movable part. The movable...