The Praça de Espanha works, when completed, will still lack a central element of the project: the pedestrian bridge that is intended to connect the Gulbenkian garden to the future Praça de Espanha urban park, allowing people to cross directly over the avenues. The public tender to find the contractor to build the bridge is in its final stages, so work should begin within two months, says TSF.
Designed by the NPK atelier as part of the new Plaza de EspañaThe pedestrian bridge has "with the aim of re-establishing the lost system that connected downtown Lisbon with Benfica via the Palhavã road" and resurrect "the long-lost pedestrian flows between Praça do Comércio and Benfica"as can be read in the descriptive memory, quoted by the newspaper Public. The bridge promises to be an element of "elegance and transparency" in white steel, formed by "a highly slender board" which will describe "a great diagonal" from the walls of the Gulbenkian to the center of the Square.
With bronze railings, the bridge will be high enough not to obstruct traffic on Calouste Gulbenkian and António Augusto de Aguiar avenues. "It is essential that access to the park is safe and universal, overcoming the barriers of the major roads that intersect here"says the description.
The bridge will fit into the new Plaza de España, whose road, pedestrian and cycling network already completedThe work has now turned to the garden and green areas, as well as the arrangements around the entrance to the Praça de Espanha metro station.
