The 32.5-meter long, 3-meter wide, FiRP® Glulam bridge was one of the first FiRP® Structures ever built in Asia.  At the time, it was the longest single span timber bridge ever built in Japan. 

Even though the city of Iwamizawa tried to design a suspension bridge, or an arch bridge, or a truss bridge, they wanted to use timber due to environmental concerns.  But with traditional glulam design, the depth of the beams would have been 1.3 meters, 0.5 meters deeper than the desired depth required by the architects.  Therefore, FiRP® Reinforcement was used to reduce the beam depth to 0.91 meter.

The FiRP® Glulam beams were designed by Western Wood Structures, Inc. in the USA, using Douglas Fir, and shipped to Japan.  The structure was erected in 1994.