Rion-Antirion bridge. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2020, from https://www.vinci-concessions.

com/en/infrastructure/rion-antirion-bridge
 ❏ Located in Gefira Charilaos Trikoupis, Greece

❏ It is located near the western end of the Gulf of Corinth

❏ It links the town of Rion on Peloponnese (southern Greece)

with Antirion on the Greek mainland

Google Maps. Country of Greece. Map. Google, 14 June 2017, Accessed 05 October 2020.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rion-Antirion+Bridge/@38.3223671,21.7854286,12.66z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x135e4c05612147c7:0xe1a625ba4f9e17c3!8m
2!3d38.3205907!4d21.7737109?hl=en
● These are used for the ● These bridges would ● These bridges have ● These bridges are
longest crossings allow ships to cross cables that both supported by cables
● They must be ● But, the bridge stretch across and hanging directly from
supported from below would be too long support a roadway supporting towers
● But, they block ship ● It would be four ● But, this design was ● This was the only
traffic and so didn’t times longer than expelled as too design option left
fit the need any arch bridge in costly
existence
● So this design was
factored out
❏ The bridge is situated on one of the most active seismic fault lines in
Europe
❏ The bridge needed to be able to resist an earthquake measured 7.4 on
the Richter Scale

❏ The sea is deep with weak soil on the seabed

❏ With no solid bedrock it seemed impossible to build foundations
❏ Tremors could turn soft ground to liquid (soil liquefaction)

❏ The area is subject to strong winds

❏ The hills on both sides create a wind tunnel

❏ There are regular land movements at each side of the bridge that
result from tectonic shifts
❏ When vetiver (a type of grass) grows on riverbanks, it stabilizes
the ground around it
❏ Following the same logic, 200 steel rods were driven into the
sand (under the piers)
❏ Each rod was at least 25 meters long and 2m in diameter
❏ Using a barge, the rods were sent down guide tubes that could be
aimed based on GPS
❏ These rods don’t reach the bedrock, and the bridge doesn’t rest
on them
❏ But, this would still prevent liquefaction
Reel Truth Science Documentaries. “Engineering Connections: Earthquake Proof Bridge (Richard Hammond) | Science Documentary.” YouTube,
❏ This was the first time that this type of reinforcement was used uploaded by , 22 June 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQf_vE7tOlw.

on a bridge
❏ The four piers are hollow structures, weighing 171,000 tons
each
❏ The piers could be stopped from sinking in an earthquake, but
they also had to be stopped from falling over
❏ Each pier needs to be able to move freely from side to side
❏ The engineers had the piers rest on a thick layer of gravel rather
than sand
❏ This allows the piers to move without digging in
❏ Enough gravel was placed on the seabed to cover two soccer
fields Reel Truth Science Documentaries. “Engineering Connections: Earthquake Proof Bridge (Richard Hammond) | Science Documentary.”
YouTube, uploaded by , 22 June 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQf_vE7tOlw.

❏ The guide tube was used again, this time to place the gravel
❏ The behavior of the road deck in an earthquake could lead to the whole bridge collapsing
❏ The deck needed to be able to move separately from the piers
❏ Similar to a hammock, the deck is fully suspended from the top of the piers
❏ Just as a hammock isolates you from the movement on a ship, the deck would swing independently as the piers move
during an earthquake
❏ But this solution had other problems
❏ If the road deck was free to move, it could swing too far, striking the arms of the piers
❏ This is especially dangerous in an area that is subject to high winds
❏ The engineers needed to slow the deck movement
❏ Solution: viscous damping, a braking system where you use a liquid to resist movement
❏ The viscous dampers (piston-like structures) under the bridge would function like a brake
❏ The pistons move through oil which offers more resistance to movement
❏ They would only be activated when struts holding the bridge still gave way in the event of a quake
❏ The bridge’s cables could be affected by wind
❏ They were prone to dangerous movements due to vortex shedding
❏ Vortex shedding occurs when wind hits a structure, causing
alternating vortices to form. As a result, the system creates a
vibrational load
❏ Solution: spirals called “strakes” were added to the cables
❏ The helical strake is a strip of metal winding around the
cables like a big coil spring to prevent vortex shedding

❏ At each end of the bridge, there is some movement between Mainland

Greece and Peloponnese Anderson, J. (2020, July 28). Engineers vs. Nature: An Impossible Bridge. Retrieved October 05, 2020, from , , ,
https://www.engineeredmechanicalsystems.com/engineers-vs-nature-an-impossible-bridge/

❏ Thus, the bridge needs some of the largest expansion joints in the
world — allowing the two coasts to drift up to 5 meters away from
each other
❏ It is one of the world’s longest cable-stayed bridges
❏ It stretches 3 km in length
❏ The bridge deck has 4 lanes and 2 safety lanes
❏ The structure comprises of 368 cables and 4 towers
❏ The bridge’s deck is composite with a steel frame made of two
longitudinal 2.2m-high plate girders on each side as well as
transverse plate girders spaced every 4m
❏ The top slab is made of precast concrete panels

Rion-Antirion Bridge: Langan Portfolio. (2020, May 07). Retrieved October 06, 2020, from https://www.langan.com/portfolio/rion-antirion-bridge
❏ (PDF) Design and Construction of the Rion Antirion Bridge. (n.d.). Retrieved October 04, 2020, from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268591718_Design_and_Construction_of_the_Rion_Antirion_Bridge

❏ Aloni, I. (2016, August 03). Achieving the Impossible with the Rion-Antirion Bridge - Part I. Retrieved October 05, 2020, from

https://medium.com/the-paragon-of-innovation/achieving-the-impossible-with-the-rion-antirion-bridge-d2bd769f8ad9

❏ Pararas-Carayannis, C. (n.d.). Rion Antirion Bridge. Retrieved October 04, 2020, from

http://info-now.org/Greece/Rion-AntirionBridge.php

❏ Verdict Media Limited. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2020, from https://www.roadtraffic-technology.com/projects/rion-antirion/