Cities experiencing steady growth, like Shanghai, London, or Munich, face a broad range of challenges. One of the primary concerns is the increase in urban traffic, which requires a sustainable infrastructure. How will we get from A to B? One way to answer these questions is to utilize elegant and space-saving elevated structures such as InnoCity by thyssenkrupp Steel Europe and Elevator.

“We want to increase the capacity for transportation in heavily populated areas by taking advantage of the third dimension,” says Steel Project Engineer Andreas Cott, who is working on the steel infrastructure concept for urban mobility of the future together with colleagues from Innovation and Application Technology.

Elevated roadways are the solution

InnoCity offers new approaches for traffic and transportation systems that connect people with one another: “With our solution, we will soon be able to integrate elaborate steel bridges flexibly and in an architecturally interesting way into urban structures,” says Cott. “We draw inspiration from processes and forms used in the automotive industry to create modular manufacturing technologies that allow the technological and economic implementation of the project.”

This could also put an end to narrow streets packed with crowding pedestrians, cyclists, and cars, while providing an alternative to the costly construction of underground transportation systems.

The concepts will be fleshed out in the areas of construction, simulation, forming and joining technologies, as well as application technology. The lightweight construction approach allows for slim foundations and construction in sensitive areas – such as inside of subway tunnels, supply lines, and underground parking facilities. As an additional advantage, once erected, these steel structures are easy to maintain.