ORESUND BRIDGE

Abstract
The Oresund Bridge is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe .The Oresund bridge
consists of a bridge, an artificial island and an underwater tunnel which connect Sweden and
Denmark across the Oresund strait .The bridge has two-level superstructure fabricated from steel
and concrete. The steel girder supports the upper deck, which accommodates the motorway, and
the lower deck where the railway is located. There is space for ships of up to 57m in height to
pass underneath.A girder and cable-stayed design was chosen to provide the specific rigidity
necessary to carry heavy rail traffic, and also to resist large accumulations of ice. The Oresund
strait separating Denmark and Sweden is a busy shipping region and it was important to
minimize the disruption to this traffic. By using prefabricated elements the amount of time spent
on the water was reduced .
The history, constructional approaches and the structural design aspects of this megastucture is
discussed in this paper.