Six Months in Copenhagen

A tremendous amount of construction is taking place just south of Copenhagen. Much of it can be attributed to large plots of land that were opened up to private development as a means of funding the new Copenhagen Metro (subway). Unfortunately, the new neighborhoods are divided by a four-lane highway and multiple rail lines. The local building authority has asked my Danish company to investigate the feasibility of decking over the road and rail ways and building a substantial public hospital on the elevated site.

The building is to be around 200,000 m2 (almost 2 million square feet) and contain 2,000 parking spaces. To achieve this area, we estimated that the hospital would need to be around 20 stories tall. The structural plan is highly limited by the roads and rails below. We cannot place a column in the middle of the highway. This means that many beams will have to span over 60 feet. That's close to three times greater than a typical design. It will be especially difficult to design floors that meet the deflection and vibration criteria required by the hospital equipment.

To kick-off work on the project, I visited the site with one of my colleagues. We arrived on site by driving along the very highway that we're planning to cover. We parked the car at an adjacent construction site. From there, we had a good view of the highway and train lines. We unfolded a 1:200 scale drawing of the site that my colleague had prepared. It stretched over seven feet long. Using existing structures for reference, we visually confirmed the location of existing overpasses, road and railways, and the elevated Metro rails.

After getting our bearings, we decided to walk the entire perimeter of the site. I took a ton of pictures; you really can't take too many. When we got back to the office, I tried to draw the conceptual structure on the existing photographs. My first attempt was to sketch in the structural supports that land in the median of the highway. I struggled drawing the objects with the appropriate height and view perspective. In the end, I was pleased with my attempt to take the train platform and show what the environment might look like after being covered with the huge platform.

I hope that these sketches can help describe the site to the non-technical people who will be reading our report. At least, I understand the site constraints better. Even still, this project is going to be a challenge. We have very little information to go on at this point. That can be really frustrating, but it also makes it kind of fun.