CANTILEVER ERECTION OF ARCH BRIDGES

Željko ŽDERIĆ
M.Sc., M. Civ. Eng., Konstruktor – Inženjering, Split, Croatia

Key words: Arch, construction, pylon method, truss method

Abstract: This paper describes pylon and truss methods for arch bridge construction. At
the very beginning of usage of concrete as a structural material for arch bridges limiting
factor was extremely complicated arch scaffolding. Those were complicated structural
systems whose design and construction were much more challenging and difficult
engineering tasks than the bridge itself. Bridge across Krka river near Šibenik (Šibenik
bridge) was the first bridge in the history of arch construction to be built entirely by
cantilever erection method with cable stays. For construction of bridge mainland – island
Krk truss method was used.. Since Croatian independence three long-span arch bridges
were constructed using pylon method: Maslenica bridge, bridge over Krka river near
Skradin as well as most recently built bridge across Cetina river.

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1. INTRODUCTION
At the very beginning of usage of concrete as a structural material for arch bridges limiting
factor was extremely complicated arch scaffolding. Those were complicated structural
systems whose design and construction were much more challenging and difficult
engineering tasks than the bridge itself.
Bridge across Krka river near Šibenik (Šibenik bridge) was the first bridge in the history of
arch construction to be built entirely by cantilever erection method with cable stays. Same
erection method was used for construction of bridge mainland – island Krk. Since Croatian
independence this method has been used for construction of Maslenica bridge, bridge over
Krka river near Skradin as well as newly built bridge across Cetina river.

2. ARCH ERECTION
Basic principal of cantilever erection method is almost parallel erection of arch halves in
short segments while they are being supported with cable stays until they join at arch
crown.
Pioneer of the cantilever method of arch erection is acknowledged to be Eugene Freyssinet
who designed three bridges in Venezuela on the highway Caracas - La Guaira, which were
erected 1950 - 1953.
Parts of these arches, next to springings, were made as cantilevers stayed by cables, while
the central part was erected on scaffolding supported by previously completed elements.
First bridge to be built entirely using cantilever erection was bridge across Krka river near
Šibenik (Šibenik bridge) 1964.
There are two types of cantilever erection methods for arch bridges:

1.) Pylon method: arch rib is suspended with cables from a column installed on arch
abutment or in span
2.) Truss method: a bridge is constructed while truss structure is formed with arch ribs,
vertical columns, stiffening beams and diagonal members.

2.1 Pylon method

Segments of the Šibenik arch (L=246m) were concreted on a scaffolding platform, 27 m
long. Rear end of cantilever segment was supported on preceding segment whilst front end
was supported with cable stays. Stays supporting first two segments were anchored in
pears. Horizontal force from stays was transferred with horizontal stays to abutment. Due to
favourable inclination of stays, next two segments were supported on temporary 30m height
steel pylons. Here again horizonatal projection of the force was transferred to abutment.
This type of erection system required all the parts of the bridge on river banks to be built
first. This is why during construction of Pag bridge all the backstays were anchored directly
into the ground rock.

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Figure 1: Construction of Šibenik and Pag bridge - sketch

Arch segments of both Šibenik and Pag bridge were built using scaffolding platform 27 m
long Front end of scaffolding was supported with stays whilst rear end was supported on
preceding segment. Large floating crane was required for each transfer of the scaffolding
into the new position (between the transfers, the crane was not needed on the site).

Construction procedure for Maslenica bridge (L=200m), bridge across Krka river(L=204m)
and recently built bridge across Cetina river (L=140m) is very much the same.
Arch is built in segments 5,25m long using travelling formwork carriage. With erection
progress, arch is being supported with the system of stays and backstays using bank piers
and temporary steel pylons. Parallel to arch construction parts of bridge on the bank are
being constructed. After the cantilevers are connected at the arch crown, temporary steel
cable stays are removed. Piers above the arch and the superstructure above the arch are
being built on completed arch.

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Figure 2: Cross sections of Maslenica (Croatia 1997) and Krka bridge (Croatia 2004) arches
and form traveller used for construction of both bridges

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Figure 3: Krka bridge during erection

2.2 Truss method

Construction procedure in which the arch and the superstructure above the arch are being
built at the same time should achieve two major advantages:
– inclusion of structural elements above the arch into load-bearing system
during the construction period
– shortening of the construction period.
Tension forces in the structure above the arch are transmitted to the abutment by means of
appropriate temporary elements, and from there they can be transmitted into the ground.
Building procedure advances by means of various form travellers. The Krk island is
connected to Croatian mainland through two arch bridges with spans of 390 m and 244 m
(Fig. 10). Krk I and Krk II bridges were constructed using temporary truss method. For the
construction only two cable-cranes of 10,0 tons capacity each were available so that the
technique of the free cantilevering procedure had to be essentially adjusted. Both arches
were built using precast RC elements, which were assembled in situ by concreting of wet
joints. In the first phase only the inside box of the arch was constructed and the outside
boxes were subsequently added.

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Figure 5: Forming of the Krk I bridge arch cross section in phases (Croatia 1981)

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