Current Long Span Bridges

This final lecture outlines some of the various LSBs currently under construction around the world (Spring 2016).

Presentation at university of Surrey May 2016 byDavid Collings BSc CEng FICEMaking the complex simple

Sungai Brunei Bridge

I had previously prepared a design for a bridge on this site, and it was good to see this 300m span bridge underway in April 2015. The design uses a concrete box girder on a single inverted Y concrete pylon. In 2016 the pylon is complete and deck is now at the cantilever stage.

Sungai Brunei Bridge

Izmit Bay Bridge

Another bridge I did a little work on a few years ago. The 1550m span bridge across Izmit Bay. There was an incident with the collapse of one of the temporary walkways last year highlighting the importance of getting the engineering details correct. However, deck construction has progressed quickly and the bridge is nearing completion.

Halogaland Suspension Bridge

This 1145m span bridge is interesting in it will bring the cables together over the tower, improving torsional response but maybe making deck construction more difficult. The towers are complete and spinning of cables starting.

HZM Bridges

It has been a few years since I have been to Zhuhai, the bridges across the delta are now progressing. One (left) was well advanced last year and has a slender tower by using saddle technology (avoiding anchorages and a hollow pylon). The other sail tower (above) was lifted in towards the end of 2015.

3rd Bosporus Bridge

This 1408m span is billed online as a suspension bridge with tall towers, but is a hybrid with a mainly cable stayed deck. Often combined in early bridges this hybrid stay-suspension form gives a stiffer structure and is likely to be more common in future suspension bridges.

David Collings BSc CEng FICEMaking the complex simple

Queensferry Bridge

This bridge the 3rd bridge across the Fourth of Firth. It has a couple of spans of 650m, and is the first of a series of 3 tower bridges. It uses a cable crossing method to help stiffen the structure.

Mersey Gateway

Another 3 tower bridge, this 1000m crossing of the Mersey uses a different method of stiffening, supplementing the box-girder deck with a slightly odd looking low central tower.

Ohio Bridge

The third 3 tower bridge is the Ohio Bridge this having a slightly higher central tower. Crossed cables, short tower, tall tower and other methods of stiffening have been evaluated in research at Surrey, paper due soon…

Tapan ZeeAnother American bridge under construction, the outward leaning towers are currently progressing.

Current Long Span Bridges

You can see the 2015 LSB lecture slides on slide share to see the progress on many of these bridges. I will update this lecture for next year, if you are aware of an interesting LSB under construction please let me know via Linkedin.

David Collings BSc CEng FICEMaking the complex simple

Presentation by CRD and Wolf productions.