The first serious problem…

 

My brother and I, lived, together with our families, in our late parents’ 54.0 m2 apartment. 4 + 3 = 7. There were seven of us… I worked in the company “Projektbiro” in Slavonski Brod, and my brother in the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod (a neighboring republic in the former Yugoslavia). He went to work across the bridge, but not the pedestrian bridge.

 

 

Realistically, I had a better chance of getting an apartment than my brother. It was 1986…

 

There were several combinations of apartments … There was no chance for an apartment in my company “Projektbiro” because I had just started working as a scholarship holder.

At that time, the world-famous company “Đuro Đaković” was better with the possibility of resolving the housing issues of its workers. I wrote earlier about my bad furniture and space for off-season merchandise in that apartment.

 

 

The decision fell. I need to cross the “river” …

 

So, we need to somehow get to the “other” Đuro… Đuro Đaković.

 

I called the then director of the company “Inženjering”, which was part of the company “Đuro Đaković”, and I arranged a meeting. An interview was done and I moved to a new company.

The new company was about a 15-minute walk from “our” apartment. I set off on foot, partly over the old Đurin pedestrian bridge, above the railway, which was uncovered about 2 meters wide.

 

The new office was in the glass business tower “Milovićka” on the 3rd floor (visible in the pictures). Construction Bureau, there were about twenty of us …

 

 

The first serious job…

 

The first job, a more serious job, that I got from my boss, was the conceptual architectural design of the pedestrian bridge. And that for the crossing of about 10,000 workers then, over the railway.

 

It had to be covered, 3 meters wide and from point “A” to point “B”. I soon went on vacation, so I designed a pedestrian bridge on the sea beach in Trogir, Croatia.

 

It was an invitation to tender in the former Yugoslavia…

 

 

How did a plastic cup of yogurt help me win the pedestrian bridge competition?

 

A total of 4 conceptual solutions were submitted to the competition. It was there in cross-section from a rectangle, a circle to my ellipse…

 

At the public presentation of the solution in front of the board, it was enough to just press a glass of yogurt. To prove that for a pedestrian bridge an ellipse is a more economical and cheaper solution than a circle.

 

And I got a solution for a staff apartment… in a new residential building. We were all overjoyed. Us seven….

 

 

1987. and the beginning of the construction of the pedestrian bridge

 

I was on the construction site day and night and monitored the construction, even though I was not a supervising engineer. Only to keep construction gaps as small as possible.

 

The construction of the pedestrian bridge is iron, anodized aluminum mantle, Plexiglas sides, aircraft rubber floor. The procedure was complex. Both in design and in construction. Lots of electric cables under and over the bridge … Everything happens on a dozen railways and one road …

 

The entrance was next to the train station, on the south side. Exit, yellow tower with two steps, on the north side. That tower was about 7.43 m high. It had only an aesthetic function. Circular floor plan approx. 5-6 meters.

 

 

Director’s call, for the pedestrian bridge …

 

The works are nearing completion…. One day, the director invited me to his office… He asked me to reduce the height of the yellow tower… In order to speed up the completion of works and “cheaper” works on the pedestrian bridge.

 

I was looking for a director, a little while until I calculated how much I would save on concrete to possibly reduce the height of the yellow tower by 1.0 meter.

 

That was below 1.0 m3 of concrete. The amount of concrete consumed so far is negligible. Later, I told the director the facts about the material, but also about the disturbing ratio between the “new” height and the width of the exit stairs.

 

I was only 27 years old and I refused to do so…

 

 

Where is the troubled water now, you wonder…

 

Apart from the fact that the interior of the pedestrian bridge serves someone for good purposes – for free advertising, through trademarks. I also wrote about earlier, the tower did not bring me any good. Like in a song about troubled water…

 

The director reminded me that I should get a staff apartment according to the decision, but… I didn’t want to tarnish the appearance of a part of the bridge for the apartment either. To this day, I am not sorry for that. I solved the apartment in the meantime, in a different way.

 

But the bridge remained in the projected proportion…

 

And the director? We often meet on walks. He always approaches me first and greets me. Appreciate me, I feel it. I’m glad for all that. Sometimes he mentions that “promised”, not received an apartment.

 

Only, to invite my neighbor from the previous Blog, who edits the facades, to edit this one as well…

Be consistent and determined. Don’t let them blackmail you…

 

 

Photo: Dusko Medakovic, Video: Tino Mrvelj

 

Thematic examples are:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G-YQA_bsOU
• https://www.google.hr/search?q=footbridge+pinterest&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwitjO-7vpPrAhWQq6QKHfTYA3oQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=footbridge+pinterest&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1CThQRYk4UEYK-QBGgAcAB4AIABggKIAYICkgEDMi0xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=J7wyX-3cBpDXkgX0sY_QBw&bih=858&biw=1680&safe=active
• https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavonski_Brod

 

Do you have a picture and story of a pedestrian bridge in your city?

Either way, leave your comment.

Until reading …….

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