New 175-metre bicycle bridge arrives in Copenhagen

The ‘Little Langebro’ bicycle bridge arrived for installation in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

Published: 3 April 2019 18:01 CEST

New 175-metre bicycle bridge arrives in Copenhagen

Photo: Kristoffer Gravgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

The bridge will complement the main Langebro bridge from 1954, one of the city’s most famous harbour crossings and immortalised by singer Kim Larsen.

Little Langebro will be place north of its larger sister bridge, connecting Vester Voldgade with Langebrogade on each side of the harbour.

The main section of the new bridge was delivered on Wednesday on a barge from Dutch city Rotterdam, TV2 reports.

Up to 10,000 cyclists and pedestrians daily are expected to use Little Langebro. The larger Langebro currently sees 40,000 motorists, cyclists and pedestrians cross each day.

“The (new) bridge will give a better alternative to the many cyclists in Copenhagen who cycle across Langebro every day,” Peter Fangel Poulsen, project manager with Realdania By & Byg, the company behind the bridge, told TV2.

“We expect it to be well-used,” Poulsen added.

Another dedicated bridge for cyclists and pedestrians, Inderhavnsbroen, connecting Christianshavn with the popular Nyhavn area at the northern end of the harbour, was opened in 2016.

In 2014, the Cykelslangen (Bicycle Snake), a winding 230-metre bicycle bridge connecting Islands Brygge with Vesterbro via the existing Byggebro bridge, opened to the south of Langebro.

The new cycle bridge is expected to be completed this autumn. It consists of four parts, each weighing 600 tonnes, according to TV2’s report.

It will allow harbour traffic to pass by turning outwards in the middle to allow taller boats to sail through, a complex design which has added to the challenge of its construction.

Originally scheduled to be opened in 2018, the project was delayed after a crane collapsed, damaging parts of the bridge.

Realdania, a private association which supports architecture and planning, is building the bridge as a gift to the city, TV2 writes.

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Bonuses on the new “CopenPay” scheme include a kayak or boat tour, a vegetarian meal, a museum ticket, or an e-bicycle ride — free of charge.

Why does the city want to give away these freebies?

“It is a core task for us to make travelling sustainable. And we will only succeed if we bridge the large gap between the visitors’ desire to act sustainably and their actual behaviour”, tourism board CEO Mikkel Aaro-Hansen said.

The public’s reaction has been “overwhelmingly positive”, although some disappointed visitors “would have liked the scheme to be in place during their stay,” Copenhagen tourism office communications director Rikke Holm Petersen told news agency AFP.

Although the tourist board says it wants the scheme to change behaviour to a more eco-friendly approach, it admits the initiative alone cannot dent the environmental impact of tourism.

More than 100,000 passengers flew into Copenhagen in June, resulting in a much higher carbon footprint than bus or train travel, according to airport data.

“The environmental burden of transportation to and from Copenhagen is much more significant than that of local transportation,” said tourism website VisitCopenhagen.

“We have chosen to limit our advertising efforts to Copenhagen Airport, the central station, and within the city itself, rather than conducting marketing campaigns abroad,” Petersen said.

The tourism office will consider extending the scheme beyond the city — perhaps even abroad — if it proves successful.

“We hope to reintroduce CopenPay as a year-round, green payment experience within the economy and broaden the concept to other parts of Denmark and the rest of the world,” according to the VisitCopenhagen site.