Symposium Dinner on the boat sailing across Bosphorus, cocktail and Gala Dinner in Adile Sultan Palace on the second night and ECCS Presidents and Executives dinner at the poolside in Wyndham Grand Kalamış Marina Hotel…
8. Steel Bridges Symposium drew attention also with its colorful events. Participants sailed through the Bosphorus at the first night of the symposium and met at a magnificent gala dinner held in Adile Sultan Palace with the participation of ECCS guests and award-winning designers from 13 countries. During the Gala Dinner, ECCS Silver Medal being the greatest means of commendation of ECCS was granted to Prof. Dr. Nesrin Yardımcı, first female board member and president since 2001, and second-time president of ECCS with a 60-year past. Furthermore, Prof. Frans BIJLAARD from Holland was awarded with Charles Massonnet Plaque while Previous Board Chairman Volkmar BERGMANN (2007-2013) and ECCS General Secretary Robert SALKIN (1995-2001) were awarded with Thank You Plaque for the celebration of ECCS’s 60th year. On 16 September 2015, ECCS Presidents and Executives gathered in the dinner held at the poolside in Wyndham Grand Kalamış Marina Hotel.
Izmit Bay Suspension Bridge – Design & Construction
The Izmit Bay Suspension Bridge is located 60km south-east of downtown Istanbul and will carry the new Gebze-Orhangazi-Bursa-Izmir motorway across the Sea of Marmara at the Bay of Izmit in northern Turkey.
The Izmit Bay Suspension Bridge consists of a three span continuous suspended box girder having a 1550m main span and two side span of each 566m making it the fourth longest bridge span in the world and the longest bridge span constructed worldwide in more than 10 years at its completion in 2016. The bridge further more consists of two 235m high H-shaped steel towers and has a 30.1m wide steel deck, shaped as a closed steel box girder, exclud-ing cantilevered walkways for operational and maintenance use.
Given the short construction time of only three years and the fact that the bridge is located in one of the world’s most seismically active regions adds to the design challenges. These conditions has amongst other things led to the choice of steel element towers, prefabricated cable strands and bolted key connections in the deck and tower.
To further optimise the construction speed the contractor’s consultant had a site liaison officer stationed on site during the initial critical phases for both substructure and superstructure fabrication thereby reducing response time for any queries between the design team and the construction teams.