Introduction

Norway is a rather long and sparsely populated country with many fjords and larger and smaller rivers. Thus, the road infrastructure requires countless bridges from the smallest up to large bridges crossing fjords with spans of up to 1,300 metres.

The ready availability of timber and the tradition of utilising timber in houses and other structures makes it natural to consider timber an adequate construction material for bridges with spans of up to 100 metres or even more. Today there are a large number of both road and pedestrian timber bridges in Norway. Since 1995, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration has built more than 100 [timber] bridges with spans up to 70 metres.

Many other countries have a long tradition of timber bridge building as well; valuable experience has been gained and there have been significant new developments in the field.