You are on page 1of 3

Replacement of Bearings in the Golden Horn Bridge,

Turkey
Masahiro Yanagihara, Civil Eng.
Toshimitsu Matsuzawa, Civil Eng.
Mizsuhiro Kudo, Civil Eng.
Turgay Turker, Civil Eng.
Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan

Summary – replacement of precast sidewalks by


steel sidewalks
The renovation and widening project for the Golden Horn Bridge in Istanbul
consisted of the construction of two new bridges and the repair of the existing – repair works of concrete structures
bridge, erected in 1974. During a preliminary inspection of the concrete viaduct
– replacement of surfacing asphalt,
of the existing bridge, the cylinder of one of the roller bearings was found to
drainage system and expansion
have split in the longitudinal direction. After further investigation, it was found
joints.
that the failure occurred due to fatigue and material problems. All the bridge
bearings were therefore replaced because they were all of the same design. New This report describes how the bearing
pot-type bearings were installed in the steel bridge, and elastomeric bearings in replacement work was implemented in
the concrete viaduct. In total 16 bearings were replaced in the steel bridge and 20 the framework of the renovation pro-
in the concrete viaduct. ject.

Introduction nect the steel bridges to the inter-


change with the Peripheral Highway
Roller Bearing Replacement
The renovation and widening project
(Figs. 1 and 2). During the repair works carried out on
for the Golden Horn Bridge had a
the concrete superstructure of the
budget of approximately 100 million The existing bridge had a 25.2-m-wide
viaduct, constructed in the early 1970s,
USD and was awarded in 1991. Work carriageway accommodating six lanes,
local settlement of 15 cm and large
on the bridge started in 1994. The pro- and 3-m-wide sidewalks on either side.
cracks on the underside of the super-
ject aimed to reduce traffic congestion The new bridges have 11-m-wide car-
structure were observed. The cracks
in the area of the Golden Horn in Is- riageways accommodating two lanes
were in a radial pattern and centred
tanbul by constructing a pair of new on each bridge.
near the northeast pier on the P10 axis
bridges on both sides of the old bridge,
The renovation work comprised: (P10-N1). Upon inspection of the P10-
and connecting the new bridges to the
N1 bearing, it was found that the cylin-
Peripheral Highway. The total length – replacement of the bearings on the
der of a bearing roller had split in half
of new roads in the project was 4 km. old bridge
along its longitudinal axis. Half of the
The widening part of the project com- – repainting the old steel bridge broken roller was sandwiched between
prised the construction of a pair of new
– fatigue stress measurements New bridge Old bridge New bridge
steel bridges, each 822 m long with
eight spans supported on concrete – repair of fatigue-induced cracks in
piers. Three reinforced concrete ap- the steel superstructure
proach viaducts, each 153 m long, con-
– strengthening of the steel super-
Peer-reviewed by international ex-
structure by increasing the height of
perts and accepted for publication the cross beam because of the in-
by IABSE Publications Committee crease in live load Fig. 1: Cross sections of the bridges
995 280 Total length
19716 822 202 153362
8-span continuous steel girder 5-span prestressed
concrete bridge

A1 P4 P5 P6
A2
P1 P2 P3 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12

New bridge Old bridge


A1 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 A2

New bridge
P9a A3
P10a
Fig. 2: General view of the bridges

Structural Engineering International 2/2000 Reports 121


the bearing replacement works. Since By means of a Teflon plate on the jack,
the working area was quite small and all the horizontal reactions due to tem-
located at a high elevation (about 25 m perature or wind were released, thus
above sea level), special safety mea- preventing any additional stress in
sures were required. superstructure.
The replacement work was performed
To prevent damage of the existing struc-
in the following sequence: P1, P2, P3,
ture, jacking up of the superstructures
P4, P5, P8, P7 and P6 of the steel
was kept to a minimum (maxima of 10
Fig. 3: Damaged P10 roller bearing bridge and P10, P11, P12, P9 and P8 of
mm for the steel superstructure and 20
the concrete viaduct. The bearings at
mm for the concrete superstructure).
the superstructure and the substruc- P8, which connect the steel bridge and
The slope of the girder changed (up to
ture (Fig. 3), while the other half was the concrete viaduct were replaced at
0.6%) due to jacking up. However, this
found at the base of the pier. This loss the same time in order to prevent any
slope is negligible for safe traffic pas-
of the bearing cylinder had been re- damage to the expansion joint located
sage. Since the fixed non-roller bearings
sponsible for the many cracks and the at P8. The two columns on each pier
at A1 and A2 were not replaced, no gap
settlement. Upon inspection of the axis were jacked up simultaneously in
occurred at the ends of the bridge dur-
bearings of other piers, another bear- order to prevent damage to the cross
ing bearing replacement.
ing in the steel bridge was found that beams and floor system.
had cracks in its roller. The steel superstructure was lifted with The cylinder capacity of the jack was
the aid of temporary lifting brackets. determined from the maximum reac-
Further investigations were under-
These brackets were connected to the tions, including the live load (Table 1).
taken to determine the cause of the
web panels of the main girder from out- Reactions of the steel bridge were
failure in the bearing roller. First, the
side and inside by high-strength friction measured under light traffic loads
material grade of the broken roller was
bolts at the piers. Therefore, the strength (at night), while reactions of the con-
checked. The roller was made of stain-
of the connections and the stress limits in crete viaduct were measured under
less steel containing 0.4% carbon and
the related welds were analysed. heavy traffic loads (during the day).
13% chromium. Similar types of dam-
age had been reported in Germany [1],
but long-term investigations had been
unable to reach a clear conclusion
regarding the cause of such failures.
However, the material content was
very sensitive to repeated concentrated
loads in laboratory loading tests, and
concentric collapse of the roller oc-
curred in a sudden and brittle manner.
All other bearings were of the same
design as the damaged one. Therefore,
it was decided to replace all the roller 1150 940
bearings with a new type of bearing
(Fig. 4). Fig. 4: New pot bearing (left) and old roller bearing (right)

Selection of New Bearing Type Bridge Pier Dead load Live load Design reaction Actual reaction
(MN) (MN) (MN) (MN)
To decide on the type of new bearings,
the following conditions were consid- Steel bridge P1 8.10 7.43 15.5 7.87
ered. The height of the new bearings P2 7.55 6.68 14.2 7.08
should be lower than that of the old P3 8.76 7.20 16.0 7.99
ones in order to minimise the site P4 8.14 7.14 15.3 7.30
works. The transmission of forces, es- P5 9.47 7.60 17.1 9.13
pecially horizontal forces, between the P6 8.48 7.72 16.2 7.53
new bearing system and the old parts P7 7.84 7.96 15.8 7.30
of the bearing should be considered P8 4.08 4.25 8.33 3.65
carefully. The stability of the substruc- Concrete P8-N1 4.89 1.82 6.71 3.14
tures should be checked, because the viaduct P9-N1 6.93 2.21 9.14 7.08
friction forces of the new bearings and P9-N2 6.93 1.83 8.76 10.7
the eccentric load due to movement of P9-S3 6.28 1.94 8.22 11.4
the superstructure will be increased. P9-S4 6.28 2.37 8.65 11.2
P10-N1 6.15 2.13 8.28 11.2
P10-N2 6.15 1.74 7.89 6.85
Bearing Replacement Works P10-S3 5.67 1.85 7.52 6.85
P10-S4 5.67 2.28 7.95 8.90
Conditions P11-N1 6.36 2.10 8.46 9.13
P12-N1 8.24 2.27 10.51 9.81
The bridge is under the heavy traffic,
which could not be interrupted during
Table 1: Reaction forces at the piers

122 Reports Structural Engineering International 2/2000


The actual reactions of the viaduct were Erection beam
Scaffolding
higher than the design values. This dis-
crepancy may have been due to the fol-
HTB of temporary bracket
lowing reasons. After settlement at pier Temporary bracket
Temporary bracket Electrical Tensioning beam
P10-N1, the reactions at the other piers chain block
(in particular, the adjacent pier P10-N2) Jack equipment

may have changed extremely. Further- Scaffolding


HTB of tensioning beam
Lever block
more, long-term settlement could stiff-
en the concrete of the superstructure in
that position, and the jacking could Pier POT bearing

have induced reactions higher than


those under balanced conditions.
Erection beam
Jack equipment
Based on the calculated reaction
forces, six jacks were used to lift and Tensioning beam
temporarily support the girders of the
steel bridge, and four jacks were used
for the concrete viaduct. The margin of
jack capacity at maximum reaction
during implementation was 1.38 for
the steel bridge and 1.49 for the con- Fig. 6: General scheme of replacement works
crete viaduct.
jacks. The connection plate was then sive strength. The pre-set value of the
welded to the vertical stiffener, in pot bearing was adjusted, and a thin
Temporary Tension Beams readiness for the lifting equipment. plate was inserted between the lower
After removal of the movable gantry flange of the girder and the top plate
Because of a structural defect, the
rails, the temporary tension beams of the bearing, if a gap was present.
lower flanges of the main steel girders
were positioned. The high-strength The bridge was then jacked down,
move outwards. According to the
friction bolts were fastened, thus intro- and the top plate of the bearing was
records for the old steel bridge [2], the
ducing pretension. welded into place.
old bearings were fixed immediately
after the installation of the web panel Temporary brackets were erected, and
on the bearings, then the mid-deck was the friction bolts were fastened. The
installed and asphalt pavement works jacks, electric pumps, steel fillers,
Concluding Remarks
were carried out. These dead loads, blocks and related accessories were in-
In the bearing replacement work, the
which only came into effect after the stalled, and the rigid beams and filler
most important issue was the selection
fixing of the bearing, created a hori- plates placed on the jacks.
of the most convenient bearing type,
zontal force that pushed out the top
The uplift attachments were removed because the new bearing must work
plate of the bearing.
from the old roller bearings, and the safely and not damage any part of the
bridge was lifted up (maximum 10 mm). superstructure or substructure. Since
The roller, top plate and related parts of the work was carried out in a narrow
the bearing were removed, leaving only space and at high elevation, necessary
the bottom base plate and its anchor in- safety measures were taken. The re-
tact. Reinforcement bars were placed placement of old roller bearings by pot
on the old bottom plate, and the under- bearings was implemented between
side of the lower flange was flattened. April and September 1998 without any
Small supports were installed and the accidents or damage to the existing
new pot bearings were positioned with structure. The cost of renovation of the
Fig. 5: Tensioning beam
the help of chains (Fig. 7). old bridge, including the replacement
To overcome this internal force, a ten- of the bearings, was less than 10% of
After assembly of the formwork, non-
sion beam was installed between the the total project cost. However, such
shrink mortar mixed with aggregate
east and west webs at every pier. The repair works pose a number of prob-
was poured under the bearing and
temporary tension beam was divided lems and are of great importance.
cured to obtain the specified compres-
into two pieces and connected by high-
strength friction bolts. A pretension References
force (200 kN) was applied by intro-
ducing a small gap (0.3 cm) before fas- [1] Damage in the stainless steel roller bearings of
tening the friction bolts (Fig. 5). bridges. Report No. 11D8-43630-002/93, State
of Bayern Ministry of International Affairs
Supreme Construction Department, Munich,
Replacement Procedure 13 February 1994.

The roller bearings of the steel bridge [2] NARUSE, T. Design of Golden Horn Bridge
(Turkey). Ishikawajima-Harima Engineering
were replaced as follows (Fig. 6).
Review, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1974.
The scaffolding was installed around [3] YANAGIHARA, M. Renovation and Widen-
the pier, and the pier top was levelled ing Project for Golden Horn Bridge. Ishikawajima-
with mortar to allow installation of the Fig. 7: Installation of bearing Harima Engineering Review, Vol. 31, No. 1, 1998.

Structural Engineering International 2/2000 Reports 123

You might also like