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Pont de Normandie Bridge, France

Year of Completion: 1995

Construction Cost: $400M

Client: Chambre de Commerce et

dIndustrie du Havre

Services Performed:

Review of Preliminary Design

Detailed Design of Main Bridge

Steel Structures

Construction of the Normandy Bridge.

BenC.

Gerwick,

Inc.

01-063e-02a

The Normandy Bridge is situated about

15 km east of Le Havre, and crossesthe river Seine. With an effective width

of 19.7 m the bridge will carry a two-

lane dual motorway. The superstruc-

ture of the viaducts and a 116 m por-

tion of the stiffening girder from each

pylon into the main span is designed

as a concrete box girder, whereas the

central 624 m part of the stiffening

girder is designed as an aerodynami-

cally shaped closed steel box to re-

duce the dead weight.

Prefabricated steel panels with trough

stiffeners were assembled to full width

sections in the assembly yard. The

yard contained two production lines for

welding and trial assembly and one

painting station for the exterior surface

treatment. The interior of the steel box

girder will be protected against corro-sion by means of dehumidication fol-

lowing principles used in large Danish

steel bridges over the last 22 years.

In order to strengthen the box girder

plate diaphragms are placed per every

four meters through the full length of

the steel bridge. At the bridge edge all

the cable stays are attached to transfer

load from the bridge deck to the ca-

bles. These complicated edge sections

arrived to the yard as prefabricated

items including the eye plates for the

cable anchors. Accurate planning was

required to make the various panels t

together.

The bridge erection proceeded from

the concrete girder ends close to the

pylons and continued until nal gap

closure at midspan. Each section was

initially loaded onto a barge and trans-

ported to bridge site, and it was then

hoisted, welded and attached to the

cable stays. The cable was thenstressed and adjusted for geometric

control.

The stay cables are of the Freyssinet

type where parallel-galvanized seven-

wire strands are arranged inside a PE-

duct. The cables are arranged in two

semifan shaped slightly inclined cable

planes and suspend the girder each

19.65 m.

The concrete pylons are shaped as aninverted Y, and will rise 215 m above

the river.

Aerial view of the nished bridge.