Dinosaur Bridge

Cake Industries acted as main contractor, design collaborator and fabricator for the bridge. A crowdfunding campaign by the local charity Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs raised enough money for a new crossing. Cake Industries worked with Tonkin Liu and Arup to design a structure to the limited budget and install it on site.

Fabrication was carried out in the Cake Industries workshop. Starting with precise laser cut pieces a female mould was used to assemble the triangular spine beam. Laser cut combs are heated locally and bent by hand so that the shape of the deck is gradually revealed. The deck pieces are welded to the central beam, before a handrail and deck mesh was attached. The entire structure was galvanised in one dip to provide a protective and decorative coating.

The bridge sits on a central slewing ring bearing so it can be moved out of the way to prevent unauthorised access to the site. The structure was installed by crane in January 2021.

Further details about the design process can be found in this paper (Knight, Chambers, Tonkin; The Dinosaur Bridge – Innovation in Structural Form & Fabrication Using Model Making and Prototyping; https://cpdinosaurs.org/pdf/SEI_Nov21_DinosaurSwingBridge.pdf) published in Structural Engineering International, November 2021.

Team

• Client: Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

• Architect: Tonkin Liu

• Structural Engineering: Arup (detailed substructure design by Cake Engineering)

• Main contractor and fabrication: Cake Industries

• Photography: James Balston

Suppliers

• Steel and cutting: M-Tec

• Galvanising: Joseph Ash Chesterfield

• Piling: Capital Piling

• Lifting: City Lifting and Forest Industrial

Awards

• RIBA National Awards: Winner- Dinosaur Swing Bridge 2023
• RIBA London Awards: Winner- Swing Bridge to Dinosaur Island 2023
• International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering: Shortlisted, “Small Projects”- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2022
• Galvanising Association Galvanising Awards: Winner “Engineering Award”- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2022
• Bridges Awards 2022: Winner, “Bridge Design under £5m”- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2022
• Civic Trust Award: Highly Commended for a National Award- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2022
• IStructE South East Awards: Winner, “Small Project” category- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2022
• IStructE South East Awards: Winner, “Most Innovative Project” category- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2022
• Structural Awards: Highly Commended in the Pedestrian Bridge Category- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2021
• AJ Architecture Awards: Shortlisted in the Infrastructure and Transport Category- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2021
• NLA New London Awards: Shortlisted in Placemaking category- Crystal Palace Dinosaur Bridge 2020