ALTO Perfis Pultrudidos, Lda, in association with the University of Minho and the Lisbon’s Superior Technic Institute, with the collaboration of Tecnipor in the supply of reinforced concrete plates with metal fibers, developed and manufactured a pedestrian bridge for the PONTALUMIS project. This project funded by QREN, which ended in April 2013, allowed ALTO developing skills in this area.

        This bridge composed of structural pultruded profiles, in particular the H 400x200x15mm profile and prefabricated concrete floor; has a total length of 11 meters and 2 meters wide and was scaled in order to cover the length without recourse to additional structural reinforcements.

         After the construction of it, load tests were carried out to bending, that revealed that the structure supports an estimated charge of 44 tons. This bridge remains to be tested, in particular to fluency, and as main feature shown in the tests is the total elastic recovery after requested significant loads.

         For the construction of the bridge, ALTO has invested in a pultruded profile H 400x200x15mm, who represented the production of a section about three times higher than the highest produced on ALTO. This profile with about 21.5 kg/m is one of the largest structural pultruded profiles produced in Europe until now. This profile will bring a new opportunity in large lengths and columns for buildings.