Infrastructure award winners

How the reconstruction of Bondo's infrastructure is succeeding in Bergell

Protection and reconstruction of Bondo - structures and landscape
Conzett Bronzini Partner

The Bondo landslide in 2017 left far more than just a trail of devastation in its wake. The soul of an entire valley was shredded. The wounds may be slow to heal, but Bregaglia would not be Bregaglia if the challenges of reconstruction had not been tackled immediately. The Bondo reconstruction project is a strong expression of Bregaglia's resilience. For the redesign of the water protection structures and traffic facilities with five new bridge structures, the project was one of the two winners of the Concrete Prize 2025.

During reconstruction after the landslide, the streambed was completely redesigned and three new bridges were built. The massive interventions change the landscape. However, they were carried out with a keen sense of place and form coherent, large-scale gestures. This can be seen, for example, in the materials used, which range from embankments with large river pebbles and faced protective walls to the parapet strips and abutments of the bridges in exposed concrete. The stones, including the dry stone walls on the terraces on the village side of the protective structure, come from the debris flows. They were cut to the required size in a small field factory and then mostly built in combination with concrete to achieve the required stability.

The project is a time machine: once the vegetation has reclaimed the terrain, the quality of the engineering structures will become even more apparent. The bridges are designed as flat, pre-stressed frame bridges to blend in perfectly with the topography and townscape - the two lower bridges are several meters higher than before. The arched soffits comply with the required clearance profiles and enable extremely slender cross-sections in the middle. To further minimize material consumption, they are partially hollow. Such statically mature supporting structures can only be realized in concrete. Its stone-like character and the implied arches also refer to the local building tradition.

The reduced aesthetics of the horizontal concrete parapets of the bridges and the walls accompanying the roadways are completely rooted in the present. They interweave with the artificially designed landscape like a net.

The most spectacular is the uppermost bridge, which replaces the historic connection. Due to requirements regarding the flow profile, the given connection points, a desired gradient of less than 10% and other aspects, it is designed as a curved frame bridge with a span of 50 meters. Like a bypass, it leaves the old route and swings over the stream, which has been canalized by means of dams and terraces. Its slender, complex geometry with visible intersections is precisely traced by the board formwork of the concrete and is a direct derivation from the sum of all specifications. The strong asymmetry in the cross-section of the supports even had a positive effect on the statics and thus enabled a more efficient supporting structure. The jury particularly praised the fact that this result was not the result of an imposed desire for form. Rather, the full strength and elegance of the three bridges, including their embedding, results from the masterful interpretation of the diverse requirements and the longevity sought, which will hopefully prevent another catastrophe.

Project description

  • Overall management: Conzett Bronzini Partner
  • Architecture: Conradin Clavuot
  • Landscape architects: mavo / Müller Illien
  • Client: Commune di Bregalia, Civil Engineering Office of the Canton of Graubünden
  • Task: New building
  • Procedure: Competition
  • Project start: 2023
  • Completion date. 2024/25
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