The Bicycle Snake

I have now taken so many photos of this project that I can't remember which pix is which but I will do my best to tell you the story of the Bicycle Snake. The cartoon below with the snake wheels was sent to me from my very sweet cousin Bernie in Oregon.  It came about as a kind of competition that developed over a few facebook comments.  The pix couldn't be more perfect and it fits right in with this story so I decided to use it for this blog. 

In the Danish language, a bicycle inner-tube is called a "slange", "cyckelslange" to be exact.  Pronounced: soo-kel-slawng.  Soo-kel as you may have figured out for yourself is: cycle or bike or bicycle.  Slange means snake. I can't tell you why an inner tube is called a snake - it just is.  A garden hose (haveslange) or water hose (vandslange) is also a snake - garden snake or water snake.  A rattle snake is klappeslange.  

In English you can describe a bridge that goes around a building as "a bridge that wraps around a building" and in English, you can correctly switch the word "wraps" with "snakes": The bridge "snakes" around the building.  Here in Copenhagen, just over the harbor is a very heavy duty trafficked bicycle/pedestrian bridge. According to the newspaper, approx. 12,000 bikes cross the bridge daily. I think that is a gross exaggeration but I've never counted so... The bridge is fairly new, about 8 years old and is a major thoroughfare for commuter bicyclist.  The problem is once you cross the bridge, you have to make a sharp turn and the pathway narrows by quite a bit.  Then once you clear that obstacle, the worst is yet to come.  All bikes have to stop and be carried up (or down) 2 flights of stairs - it's a total zoo. 

So the city planners came up with a brilliant plan - a slangebro or in English: a "snake bridge" or more direct "the inner-tube bridge".  The bridge "snakes" it's way over the harbor and around the building.  "Cykelslangen" is a play with words and everybody knows exactly what it means. The fun of it gets lost in the translation.  Notice the "en" as been added to the end of the word.  "en" or "et" at the end of a noun is the definite article.  That's "the" for those of you who don't remember what definite article is: The bike snake

The newspaper journalist wonders why (and so do I) why the bridge was made in China. But anyway, it was made there in sections and shipped from Shanghai to the cargo harbor in north Copenhagen.  From there, the pieces were placed on a barge and sailed to Kalvebod Brygge which is the wharf directly across the harbor from where we live at Iceland's Wharf (Islands Brygge).

I've been watching the project in progress since day one.  This is the area I walk Bounty, plus we can see it from our kitchen window.  Since winter comes early here in DK and there is no Thanksgiving to celebrate, November is rather dull and lifeless.  So up with the Christmas decorations ASAP.  Already in the first week of November, the lights in the trees around the shopping mall were lit.  Then just a few days later, the trees - 4 very tall trees - were gone.  They were just totally pulled out of the ground.  They were moved to an area that belongs to the swanky apartment complex located just next to the shopping mall.  So obviously they didn't kill the trees.  They just moved them to a temporary corner so that they could be replanted once the work was done.  Most likely they will plant them back to where they came from, once they are finished doing whatever they are going to do.  At that time I had no idea of the bike bridge to be built.

So on my next many walks around the harbor, this is what I saw going on.

After the trees were removed and the sidewalks torn up and the boat rental area along with the public swim area moved further up the harbor, they installed some odd looking rusty metal tubes into the water.

I couldn't understand why they would remove trees to put rusty junk in the water.

red arrow - boat rental

green arrows - swimming

blue arrow - rusty tube (what in the world is that all about I wondered.)

blue arrows - where the rusty tubes are in the water as well as on the sidewalks where they removed the trees.

orange arrow - the existing bike and pedestrian pathway where everyone smashes into each other.

red arrow - where the new bike bridge will start on the harbor side.

Another big rusty pipe in the water.

For almost all of 2013 the project was at a total stand still.  It turns out that the building company went belly up.  They were actually in the middle of 2 other bridges over the harbor among many other projects around the city and they were only partially completed when the company went out of business.  The city was having a hard time trying to find someone who could complete the projects.  Summer of 2013 was one of the hottest and driest on record.  The tress that were moved to be used for another time are now dead and the Christmas lights, to this day, are still in the trees. 

Then finally something started to happen around September 2013 - but not much.  There was more destroying before building.  Then winter came - more nothing.

orange arrow - Before things got better, they started to cut into a retaining wall that holds the parking lot in place.

blue arrow - rusty tube

red dotted line - sharp corner where bikes and pedestrians crash into each other and fall into the water.

Then for about a week this blue van was parked here and a man down inside of the tube was doing something that looked very suspicious.

blue arrow - rusty tube

light blue arrow - air pump

yellow arrow - tube of fresh air being pumped to the very suspicious looking man in the tube.

Every morning while walking the dog, from the railing I tried and I tried to lean over and see what the heck was going on down there.  It's still a mystery and veerrrry suspicious.

Then one day, not long ago, this big box of poles showed up.

 

One by one they started to take the poles out of the box and place a pole in each of the rusty tubes.

 

Here you can see the 2nd pole set up (the 1st pole is around the corner of the building).  The 3rd pole will be put into the rusty tube in the water and so on.  In the red circle, you can see the stairs that have to climbed and at rush hour it can be quite comical to watch.

 

blue arrows -  Some poles are in and some are still needed.

red arrow - our kitchen window.  We can watch all the excitement while eating our danish.  Ummm, danish!

 

 Now all 9 poles are set up in the rusty tubes.

Extra support and stabilizing devices have been temporarily added to steady the bridge into place.

 Section 1

 

Here the first section has been hoisted and put into place.  This is where the bridge will start on the city side.

 

 It's going to be a huge project.

 

I watched  the men for about 15 minutes with special tools leveling and getting this first piece just right.  Imagine a metal "puzzle" made in one country half way around the world and then put together on the other side of the world - it has to fit just right.  Get that first piece wrong by just a hair and it could be a whole couple of meters/yards off when you get to the other end of the bridge.

blue arrows - this is the flight of stairs that 1000's of bikes are carried up and down every day.

Section 2 & 3

It was quite amazing how they did this.  And how in the world did they get all the equipment here?!  There really are no roads for anything longer or bigger than a small delivery van, yet here are these huge cranes and a mile long truck.  I'm guessing it all arrived the same way as the actual bridge arrived - by barge.

 

This is section 3.  And this is the barge that it sailed in on.  Notice the yellow crane is also on the red painted barge.  Section 3 is being prepared to be hoisted by the crane.  Section 2 has already been lifted.

This is section 2.  If you look under it, you will see the back end of the long red truck.

Section 2 will be lifted up and put into place using the green crane .

Notice the yellow crane in the background, it is getting ready to lift section 3 and place it on the red truck which will then back up to the green crane and be hoisted into place.

blue arrows - the poles that will hold up the bridge.

Section 2 on the back of the truck will be hoisted by use of the green crane.

yellow arrosw - extra support truss, not part of the finished bridge.

blue arrows - the bridge will sit upon these poles.

I will explain it again, using section 3, to show why this was so bizarre.

Section 3 (along with section 2) is shipped in on a barge from the north end of the harbor to this end of the harbor.

A yellow crane on the red barge lifts the section and places it down onto a red truck which is amazingly long.

The red truck then backs up to a green crane which is waiting to lift the section off of the red truck.

The green crane places the section into place.

When the green crane has lifted section 3 off of the truck, the truck will drive forward to be ready to receive section 4 and then back up to the pole that will hold up section 4.

This procedure continues until section 6 can be put into place directly using only the yellow crane.
Also interesting is that each section is held up with only 1 pole.

 Section 4 & 5

Sections 2 and 3 have now been put into their correct positions and here you can see section 4 being lowered onto the pole.  This section will cross over the bridge below which leads to the hotel and beyond.

Here now section 4 has been put into place with the green crane.

Section 5 is on the back of the red truck via the yellow crane.

blue arrows  pointing up and down - Section 5 will sit upon this pole.

blue arrow pointing right - is where section 6 will rest - but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

green arrows - shows the end of section 4

red dotted line - is where the bicycle traffic used to be - then around the corner and up the stairs and pray that the bike 5 stairs above you doesn't come crashing down on top you.

btw... at the bottom end of the blue arrow pointing upwards is a rectangle planter box. One of the 4 trees that was to be replanted came from this planter box.

The silver building to the right is Copenhagen Island Hotel and the brick building to the left is the end of the Fish Square Shopping Mall.  This particular end of the building is the CinemaxX cinema. It's kind of fun to know that the movie theater is all glass letting in lots of light when you are supposed to watch a film in the dark.

Inspecting the joint of section 3 and 4.  It looks a little out of whack if you ask me. But then again - if you think about where it came from and where it's going and the weight of just one section.......

Section 6 & 7

Here section 6 is being positioned into place.

The red truck and the green crane are no longer needed as the yellow crane can now reach the rest of the poles directly from the barage.
Notice the 2 trees on the left hand side of the photo. They were left in the ground and they too have X-mas tree lights on them.

 Section 6

 

Section 6 is completed and now section 7 is hoisted from the barge and carefully swinging to the next pole.

 

 Connecting section 7 with 6.

 

Section 8, 9 & 10

The nice weather turned to funk as it so often does here.

Now the barge has moved to where sections 8,9 and 10 should be placed.

Section 8 is now in place.

 

 

From section 8 to the poll will be section 9.

I waited and waited and froze in the lousy funky weather.  But nothing was happening.  So I figured I may as well go home and take the last pix from the window while I gorge myself on danish.

 

 While I make a cuppa java, section 9 is put into place.

 

Now I am nice and warm and stuffed from my selections of danish and I snap the last pix of section 10.


It's not quite done as of yet.  The guys are doing some detailed work now, mending the seams between sections.  While I was in the middle of this blog yesterday, Jens was watching the news.  They showed Queen Margrethe of Denmark on an official state visit in China.  She was trying to clench a deal with the Chinese.  She wants to sell them packaged pork products.  Packaged pork up until now has been against the law in China - one must buy a whole side of pork or the entire pig or pieces from the butcher.  Can you imagine the money you can make if you can sell just one item to every Chinese person in China?

So that must have been why the bridge was made in China.  It must have been a tactical move to sell more business. And guess what? Today while putting on the finishing touches on this story, it was reported that the Chinese signed the deal.  Denmark will be the first country to export packaged pork to China. While America is spending billions of $ importing, little tiny Denmark will be cashing in big time by exporting pork.  Clever country that Denmark.

OK - back to the bike bridge.  It is supposed to be complete by the end of next month.  We shall see. In case you are wondering - way in the background you can see the next bridge.  It goes over the railroad tracks.  The S sign is a train station. It's just one stop to the center of town. Beyond that is the west side of Copenhagen.  In the opposite direction - coming back this way and just 3 rows of apartments behind us is a nature reserve.  Jens walks the dog every day through the fields.  The bike lane continues through the nature area but now it will be asphalted.  When it rains, it is a total mess but now bike riding will be much more pleasant and there will be lightning along the path as well.  I ride my bike this way in the daylight hours and when it is dry.  Now I will be able to ride safely anytime.

This is the dirt trail that Jens and Bounty walk every day.  It is being prepared for asphalt.

Here is one of the signs in the construction area to show what the bridge will look like when it is completed - notice the big green tree.

Now all I need to do is pump up my snakes.