The Anaconda cycling bridge in Lelystad (Netherlands)

[Ep. 1088] Join me in Lelystad (Netherlands) to explore the Anaconda cycling bridge — a striking, snake-like structure celebrating its 20th anniversary. Built in 2005, this elegant steel truss bridge winds its way over the Oostranddreef, connecting two residential areas in the city’s extensive cycling network. In this video, I take a closer look at its design, setting, and place within Lelystad’s well-planned infrastructure.

Find more details and background in my accompanying blog post: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/?p=27110

“An anaconda, one of the largest snakes in 
the world. It’s about four metres long…” Ah no, sorry, Mr Attenborough 
— not that kind of anaconda. This is the Anaconda cycling bridge
in Lelystad, in the Netherlands. It has been in use since November 2005, which makes this bridge exactly 20 years old. Lelystad is the capital of Flevoland, 
the youngest province in the Netherlands. Until 1950, everything you see here
was at the bottom of the sea. The area was enclosed by a dike and drained, a process that took seven years. It took another decade
before the first residents arrived, in 1967, and the municipality of Lelystad
was officially founded in 1980. Today, the city has just over 85,000 inhabitants. Lelystad was connected to the
national railway network in 1988. Because the city was planned in the 1960s and 70s, it features a completely separate
network of cycleways, with almost all crossings at different levels. Many overpasses and underpasses were built, and in 2005 the Anaconda was added to that list. The bridge is 340 metres long and winds its way like a snake over a main road; the provincial N309,
also known as Oostranddreef. It’s a steel truss bridge,
with struts placed at irregular intervals. Combined with its curves,
this makes it look even more serpentine. The name, however,
wasn’t chosen by the architect it was suggested by a local resident
during a naming competition in 2004. The bridge connects two parts
of a residential area, spanning a major road and
several small ditches. Very close by is a turbo-roundabout, and since those don’t mix well with level crossings, it’s fortunate that the bridge was already 
there when the roundabout was retrofitted. After twenty years of use, there’s 
naturally some wear and tear, but overall maintenance is excellent. The lighting, for instance,
was upgraded to LED in 2023. The Anaconda also links directly to 
another bridge by the same architect, which crosses the Lage Vaart, a canal used both for water management
and for navigation. That bridge opened a year earlier,
in December 2004. To qualify for a European subsidy, it had to becompleted before 1 January 2005, so it was built in a record time of just two months. It measures 94 metres in length
and 4.2 metres in width. Together, these two bridges
help cyclists overcome… the physical barriers in the landscape and form an important part of Lelystad’s
well-developed cycling network.