Poole Harbour Crossing

Back in 1997, the judge called the winning design in the competition for the Poole Harbour Crossing ‘world class’ and the new road bridge over Poole Harbour Bay near Bournemouth on the south coast of England attracted great interest. Dissing+Weitling’s minimalistic bridge design soundly beat all the 62 other entries in the major international competition.

The contest proposal from Dissing+Weitling for a new bridge over Poole Harbour won a major international competition composed of several phases with a long elimination process. The winning entry came from Dissing+Weitling with Rambøl, the British engineers Flint & Neill and Terence O´Rourke.

Despite impressive statements from the jury, and a great deal of media attention, the bridge was never built, but in 1997, the choice of a minimalistic design was a new break with British bridge-building tradition, and a major turning point for Dissing+Weitling’s work on bridges.

Innovative bridge design

The Pool Harbour Crossing has a wide range of innovative characteristics – in particular the longitudinal links between the tops of the pylons and the installations. Environmental factors were essential, and the design is a clean and elegant response to the requirements.

The bridge won first prize in an open international competition organised by the UK Department for Transport in cooperation with the Royal Fine Arts Commission. 98 different proposals from 62 teams entered the first phase.

A change of government in 1998 meant that the bridge and plans for Holes Bay were shelved.