P.S. EUROPA 2018 BRIDGE TUDJMAN, DU

The Bay of Rijeka dubrovačka stretches 6 km and is located north-west of Dubrovnik. The small River Ombla, the shortest river in the world according to some sources – only 30 m long from its source to delta, flows into the bay at its first section. There is a grand bridge at its end section where it meets the sea named after the first Croatian president, Dr. Franjo Tuđman. Construction of this bridge reduced the travelling distance from Split to Dubrovnik by more than 10 km. The bridge is located on State Highway 8. Its shape and construction solution – one pylon bearing a cable-stayed bridge – is the first and unique structure of that kind built in Croatia. In terms of space and time, the bridge is a modern structure clashing with the ancient forts, walls and bridges of Dubrovnik. The construction of the bridge started in 1989 with the construction of the bridge access road. However, the works were halted because of the war and continued in 1999. The bridge was erected according to the project prepared at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Zagreb. The main bridge designer was Zlatko Šavor, PhD. The original project from 1989 envisioned a steel superstructure. Once the construction started, it was partially replaced on the west section with a pre-stressed concrete construction. The two hundred and eighty meter wide Bay of Rijeka dubrovačka was bridged by a suspended bridge with the main span of 304 m and side spans of 87.35 m on the Split side and 80.7 m on the Dubrovnik side. The Split span and a section of the main span with a length of 60 m were built according to the principle of cantilever construction in the form of a box construction made of pre-stressed concrete leaning against an abutment and a column and connected to the steel part of the main span by a joint. A section of the main span with the length of 244 m and the side span on the Dubrovnik side were built as a coupled construction (steel/concrete) with a pi cross section suspended by cables from a reinforced concrete pylon with a height of 141.5 m shaped like letter A and leaning against an abutment on the Dubrovnik side. The width of the bridge varies from 12.2 to 16.04 m due to the expansions on the access roads and due to the location of the anchoring braces. The total length between the end points of the bridge abutments is 518.23 m. The free height under the bridge construction is 50.3 m. The pylon foundation rests on two reinforced concrete slabs with the size of 15.5x15.5 m and thickness of 6 m connected by a beam with a cross-section of 4x3 m. The foundation of the west column is a reinforced concrete slab with the size of 22.6 x 13.6 m and thickness of 4 m constructed on 40 drilled piles. Taking into consideration the high seismic zone, the bridge was designed to withstand seismic acceleration of 0.38 g. Walter Bau AG and Konstruktor-Split built the bridge together at the cost of approximately €31.5 million and it was opened to traffic on May 22nd, 2002. Zvonimir-Zdenko Šimunjak, B.Sc.C.E.