all kind of bridges

PANORAMA THE SOUMONT WALL, A WELL-INTEGRATED GIANT P. 2

FOCUS JULIO MARTINEZ CALZÓN AND MIGUELGOMEZ NAVARRO: THE VERSATILITY OF STAY CABLES P. 4

REALIZATIONS A CITY IN THE DESERT P. 12

TRANSVERSE THE FREYSSINET STAY CABLE ON TOUR IN ASIA P. 22

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STAY CABLE The System in Top Form

THE FREYSSINET GROUP MAGAZINE&StructuresSoils

Construction of the Cooper River Bridge in South Carolina(USA) is well underway. With a total length of 4,023 m,featuring a 900 m-long cable-stayed stretch and a central span of 472 m, this is the largest structure of its kind in the United States.Freyssinet will supply and install all 128 stay cables.

P A N O R A M A

Freyssinet Attends the fib SymposiumFreyssinet presented its latest accomplishmentsat the fib (International Federation for Structural Concrete) Symposium held in Avignon(France) between the 26th and 28th of April. This international event organized by the AFGC(French Association of Civil Engineering) brought together nearly 400 engineers, architects and experts from around the world. In addition to the official activities, visits to the Millau Viaduct, for which Freyssinet is installing stay cables, and the MediterraneanTGV line were organized.

A Well-Integrated GiantMeasuring 30 m in height and covering 10,000 m2, the Soumont wall located near Lodève(Hérault) on the new A75 motorway between Clermont-Ferrand and the Mediterranean Sea is one of the largest Reinforced Earth retaining structures in France. Despite its enormous proportions, the work was harmoniously integrated into the rocky environment using architectural cladding elements arranged in a terrace-like formation.

Reinforced Earth: 30 Birthday Candles in JapanIn June, Bruno Dupety, Freyssinet's Chief Executive Officer, attended the traditionalKAI ceremonies organized by Sumitomo/Hiroseand Kawasho, Reinforced Earth licencies in Japan. The most successful entities were given awards for excellence and Mr Niki, Hirose, Tanura and Yamamoto received a trophy celebrating the thirtiethanniversary of Reinforced Earth’s licence in the Land of the Rising Sun.

128Stay CablesDry RepairMany structures were damagedduring the floods that hit the south of France in 2002 and 2003. Freyssinet was called in to repair a portion of thePhilippe-Lamour canal nearMontpellier. Twelve 4 x 4 m squareslabs were reconstructed withshotcrete, 160 m2 of concrete facing was restored and 320 m of cracks and 71 joints were treated. Using a mobile coffer dam specially designed for this project, the repairs were successfully completed without the need to empty the canal.

for a Record-Breaking Span

2 Soils & Structures Second Semester 2004

PANORAMA

I N B R I E FUSA4,800 Controlled ModulusColumns. Between last Juneand August, DGI-Menard, the American subsidiary ofMénard Soltraitement, realized4,800 Controlled ModulusColumns (CMC) south ofBurlington in the State of Vermont to strengthen the soil on a plot for futureconstruction of a store.

FRANCE800 m2 of Carbon FiberFabrics. Freyssinet France hasbegun work in the AtlanticPyrenees region to strengthen the steps of the Bayonne amphitheaterconstructed at the beginning ofthe 20th century. A total of 800 m2 of Carbon FiberFabrics and 13 tons of metal beams will be installedby October 2004.

SUDAN

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Crossing the Corinth Gulf Last August 7th, the Rion-AntirionBridge in Greece was inaugurated with the passage of the Olympic flamefor the 2004 games held in Athens. On this 2,252 m long bridge, built by VINCI Construction Grands Projets,Freyssinet installed 368 stay cables(4,500 t of steel) equipped withearthquake protection systems.

BirthdayFreyssinet Polska, the Group’s Polish subsidiary, is five years old. Since its creation in 1999, it has participated inthe construction of the country's mostprestigious sites : Gdansk Bridge, cable-stayed bridge over the Vistula in Plock,etc., and has seen the incrementallaunching of bridges in Czerniakowskiand Wroclaw. Currently, it is among themost active specialized of civil engineer-ing companies in the country. Over thesepast five years, Krzysztof Berger, the general director, has created a team oftalented young engineers; These includeArkadiusz Franków, geotechnical engi-neer, Andrzej Kandybowicz, works man-ager, Pawel Skrzypczak, financial direc-tor, Lucjan Talma, business manager,and, last but not least, Zofia Krawczycwho joined Freyssinet Polska in 1999.

IBM Opts for PrestressingDesigned by the renowned Swiss architect, Max Dudler,the new IBM headquarters under construction in Zurich-Altstetten, is a 13-storey, 37,000 m2 complex.Allreal AG is in charge of construction, in association withconsultants Höltschi & Schurter and Walther Mory Maier.For construction of the slabs, the project engineers chose to implement a compact and easy-to-installprestressing solution like those designed by Freyssinet.Through the fruitful collaboration between Feldmann BauAG (Bilten) and Freyssinet, construction was completed in just eleven months.

Sols & Structures moves onSols & Structures will from now on be published everysix months. It will have supplementary pages and dealwith new areas. Two articles are already being scheduledfor the next edition: earthquake resistance devices onthe Rion-Antirion bridge and an article on the Polishagency, Freyssinet Polska.

Flyby through HistoryMotorists in Ohio (USA) will soon be able to retracethe history of American aviation that took off in theirregion. A crossroads near Dayton has been renovatedwith 11,400 m2 of Reinforced Earth covered witharchitectural panels presenting a 16-scene history of the story of the Wright brothers and their first Flyer.

Prestressed Floors for the Mirdiff Mall

In February 2004, FreyssinetGulf LLC began the prestressingof 130,000 m2 of floors for the new Mirdiff Mall inDubai. This is the largest prestressing contract thecompany has ever signed in

the United Arab Emirates. ByMarch 2005, 1,000 t of strandswill have been installed for several floors composedof full slabs and transversebeams spanning 19 m.

Second semester 2004 Soils & Structures 3

5,200 m2 of Reinforced Earth.Reinforced Earth’s firstcontracts in Sudan involvedthe construction of Reinforced Earth approachramps to the Tuti Bridge and the Al Gaba bridge, both situated in Khartoum. The surface areas of the cladding is 900 m2 for theTuti structure and 4,300 m2

for the Al Gaba structure. The panels were precast by a local contractor with a pleasing bush-hammeredarchitectural pattern.

SOUTH KOREALightning-Speed Construction.With the assistance of theVélizy Technical Department(France), Freyssinet Korea(South Korea) constructed theDoomul cable-stayedfootbridge in the heart ofSeoul last May in just eightdays. This unique structurepresents a 14 m wide centraldeck and is elevated 11 mfrom the ground by 12 staycables, the longest of which is20.2 m; Its tower stands at 18 m high.

F O C U S

cables can create apowerful aesthetic effectwhen they form a group.Isolated cables shouldbe reserved for light,spacious structures such as building roofs,for example. Conversely,on a bridge, a group iscrucial to the aestheticoutcome. Whether they are used for bridgesor for building roofs,stay cables and theirarchitecturalarrangement are awhim, a fashionstatement. Their futurecould be limited. During the 19th century,western societies werelikewise infatuated witharch bridges, which later almost disappeared,replaced by lintels, only to resurfacerecently, like a fad.

So, cable-stayed bridgesare a fad? Not exactly.Clearly, the techniquehas been overexploitedwithout justification in many locations, suchas developed countriesin response to clientdemand based on the desire for fashion or prestige.Our society has gonethrough three phases of stay cable structuredevelopment. During the first phase,

JULIO MARTINEZ CALZÓN-MIGUEL GOMEZ NAVARRO

The Versatility of Stay CablesJulio Martinez Calzón and Miguel GomezNavarro are both engineers in the SpanishEngineering Consultancy Company MC2 andparticipated in the design of the ValladolidScience Museum footbridge*. They look backupon the genesis of this ground-breakingstructure, and sketch their vision for the futureof stay cables.

cross elements, thefunctional part of thefootbridge, were given ahexagonal shape. Again, this reinforcedthe feeling of noveltyand movement procuredwhile crossing thestructure. For thestabilizing cross cables,we contemplated usingone single cableanchored to the lowerpart and wrappedaround each ring orpolygon of thefootbridge. However,direction changeproblems finally forcedus to use double cables.Freyssinet performed all the tests to validatethis design with theCohestrand. In summary,the structure could bedefined as the dialogueor correlation between a very fine metal wiremesh and a woven netcomposed of onlyvertical and horizontalcables.

Does this bold designmake way for a newconception of cabledstructures?We showed a lot ofcreativity in the designof this structure, butdidn’t forge a model or type of design basedon new cablecombinations. We dobelieve, however, that

Soils & Structures. - You helped design theValladolid ScienceMuseum footbridge.Would you classify it as a cable-stayed structure?It’s a unique structurethat’s difficult tocategorize. It would be better described as a

footbridge that isprestressed with externalcables and equippedwith a cable-stayedcomponent. An estimateof the proportionswould be 80%prestressing and 20%stay cables. To betterunderstand this fusion

Julio Martinez Calzón.

between externalprestressing and staycables, let’s take a lookback at the originalproject which wasconceived by thearchitect José RafaelMoneo in collaborationwith Enrique de Teresa,the Science Museumarchitect. This wasoriginally based on theform of a fish basket,and to make this ideamore concrete, weproposed using cablesthat would add to the total aesthetics ofthe footbridge while also stabilizing thepedestrian area. Thisproduced the desiredfeeling of “spaciousness”.In short, the structureevolved throughmodification of thepositioning of upper,lower and lateral cablesto yield the desiredeffect. In addition, the

FOCUS

structures that werelarge, interesting andinnovative were built,but these have not agedwell. The second phasewas characterized by a less-selective use ofthe technique; This gaverise to the constructionof very interestingstructures, but also of ones that are morequestionable. Lastly, the third and currentphase benefits fromhigh-quality stay cablesand auxiliary elements,thus permitting thecreation of durable,easy-to-maintainstructures. The resulthas been real progressin the areas ofwatertightness, anti-UVprotection, vibrationcontrol, and the highdurability ofindividually-protectedstrands, etc. Stay cablesare no longer usedexclusively for structuralor aesthetic reasons, butnow, thanks to thesesteps forward, can serveas very interestingfunctional andarchitectural objectives.Their use can becometruly active and effective.

Is the design of a cable-stayed structure like thatof any other structure? The use of stay cablesrequires the design ofstructures that could bequalified as “aerial”;These pass overfunctional zones at greatheights, and arenecessary when the goalis to completely free up the lower space of asite. In addition, it’simportant to rememberthat, besides providingsupport, stay cables are great aids duringconstruction.Structurally speaking,when used on largeconstructions, they offergreat freedom of designand installation. Suchcharacteristics are theresult of developmentsin digital analysis andcomputers.If modern architecture is to be regarded ascomplex, it’s becausethese tools are available,are used in an increasingnumber of applications,offer more possibilitiesand new solutions. In the framework of thisincreasingly active use of stay cable elements in

architecture, we believethat parallel strandcables have more designpotential and a largerrange of applicationsthan locked-coil strands,which are more limitedto suspended structuresand industrial uses.Locked-coil strands are less ductile undercurrent civil engineeringrecommendations.

What do you believe the future holds for cable-stayed structures?Though current staycable technology issatisfactory, we foreseecontinuing progress inthe quality of materialsand elements making upsteel stay cables. We are,however, more skepticalabout the developmentof composite materials

in the short term, except in very particularcases such as that of the CollserolaTelecommunicationsTower. Here, steel staycables were used for the lower section andcomposite Kevlar cableswere used for the uppersection to stabilize the mast (because metalpieces would havegenerated inductioncurrents and, thus, could not be installed).Because of their costand conditions of usedemand for thesematerials will notbecome widespreadrapidly, and their usewill remain limited tospecific applications. For the design ofbridges, we couldperhaps use mixed

solutions in the future to surpass the currentlimits. In our opinion,however, the currenttraditional criteria, with a few minorimprovements, willcontinue to decisivelydominate the market for years to come. n* Also see page 18.

Miguel Gomez Navarro.

The CollserolaTelecommunications Tower in Spain combinesthe use of steel stay cables (supplied andinstalled by Freyssinet)in the lower section withKevlar cables in the uppersection to avoid disruptionof radio broadcasting.

The cables of the ValladolidScience Museum footbridgeserve both as stay cables and prestressing elements.


R E P O R T S T AY C A B L E S

Freyssinet was apioneer of the

stay cabletechnique and

has been workingfor the past 30years towards

perfecting it fordesigners and

project owners.The Freyssinet

system, based onstate-of-the-art

technology, hasfound its latest

expression in theMillau Viaduct.

The System in Top Form

BY WAY OF AN INTRODUCTIONTO THE PRESENTATIONS he

gave in Asia last spring, (as part ofthe two conferences on stay cablesorganized by the Group - see page22), Bruno Dupety, the CEO ofFreyssinet, again highlighted therisk brought to his attention at thebeginning of 2004 by Michel Vir-logeux, consulting engineer: thatthis technology would becomebanal and that we would forget thegreat strides it has made over thelast 10 years. Bruno Dupety sharedthis view with Jérôme Stubler,Freyssinet Deputy General Man-ager and Structure Division Direc-tor, and thus quickly decided to givetop experts in the field a forum inwhich to share their experiencebefore audiences in the region ofthe world that currently has thelargest number of bridges are under

construction: the Far East. The tim-ing was perfect: this year Freyssinetmarks the 30th anniversary of theBrotonne Bridge, the first cable-stayed bridge built in France (1974)and the tenth anniversary of theNormandy Bridge. The FreyssinetManagement team was also ableto boast current accomplishmentssuch as the Group's participationin several important sites (includ-ing the Cooper River Bridge in theUSA and Centennial Bridge inPanama – see page 16), two of whichhave attracted worldwide attentionwhich is not confined to specialists:the Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greeceand, most recently, the MillauViaduct in France.

On the 27th of August 2004, at pre-cisely 12:04 pm, the final stay cablewas placed on the Millau Viaduct,and, as he later admitted, Jean-LucBringer, the Freyssinet site man-ager, breathed a sigh of relief.Freyssinet held to the very short 12-week delay that was defined for theinstallation and tensioning of 154stay cables, and thereby upheld itspledge not to disrupt the construc-tion schedule for this importantproject, undertaken by the Eiffage

group; The bridge will be officiallyinaugurated on the 17th of Decem-ber. The main component of theassignment has been accom-plished, yet a part of the team willremain on site until mid-Novem-ber in order to complete the finalcrucial steps: cable tension adjust-ment, damper placement, injec-tions, etc. Freyssinet worked extre-mely hard to respect the timeline,and achieved an exceptional levelof organization within a team that

Millau: A technicaland human success


DOSSIER

mA Quick Look at the ViaductThe Millau Viaduct, that stretches across the Tarn valley, is 2,460 mlong and is held by 7 pylons that are 340 m high. Its deck rises270 m above the ground and the main spans are 342 m long.Designed to support a 4-lane motorway, the deck is composed ofa 32 m-wide trapezoidal orthotropic box girder, made of steel; a central line of 22 stay cables per pylon holds the deck. Thestructure was completed as part of a concession contract; Theconstruction contract was awarded to the Compagnie Eiffage duViaduc de Millau (CEVM), that will operate it for 75 years, thebuilding process was split between Eiffage TP (civil engineering)and Eiffel (metal deck), which respectively subcontracted toFreyssinet for nailing of the deck to the piers and supply, andinstallation of the stay cables (1,500 tons).

DURING LAUNCHING OF THE DECK, 24 stay cables installed on pylons P2 and P3 were used as launching cables. Temporary saddles placed on the deck and pylons helped to limit angular deformations in the anchoring points.

totaled nearly 100 people at theheight of activities (much largerthan normal team sizes). Suchefforts are reminiscent of the levelof involvement shown during theproject to repair an arch of the tun-nel under the English Channel in1996, a project that is still vividlyremembered in the company.Immediately following signature of the contract in January 2002,Manuel Peltier, Freyssinet projectmanager, and Jean-Luc Bringer,employed in the Freyssinet FranceTechnical Department in Gémenos(Bouches-du-Rhône) at the time(and long interested in a project

that he had been “following for 11or 12 years”), got down to the job ofdefining the profiles necessary forthe site; These profiles were com-municated throughout the Group.Almost 30 months later, the team atwork in Millau during the summerof 2004 was a melting pot of Frenchcollaborators with accents fromvarious provinces, several techni-cians from Portuguese and Britishsubsidiaries, and actors from MajorProjects who had just descendedfrom the pylons of the Rion-Antirion. Comprised mainly of vol-unteers, who were “proud anddelighted” to participate in thisprestigious site, and whose averageage, according to Jean-Luc Bringer,was between 25 and 30 years; theteam, quickly got down to workwith “very good morale”, no doubtaided by the favorable summerconditions.The stay cables, first installed onpylons P3 and P2, were used aslaunching masts, and the relatedtasks were completed: temporarynailing of the deck, temporary pre-stressing of the crossbeams onstruts. The company was on sitefrom the start date in June 2003 t t

Owner : Compagnie Eiffage du viaducde Millau.Engineer : SETEC. Architect : Lord Norman Foster. Designer : Michel Virlogeux. Project : Thalès, Arcadis ESG,Serf.Execution methods : GreischIngénierie, Arcadis ESG, Thalès,Eiffage TP.Main contractors : Eiffage TP,Eiffel.Specialized contractor :Freyssinet.

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Its capacity to be dismantledstrand by strand allows close forinspection in case of damage andreplacement of the defective strandand not the entire stay cable. Inaddition, because the Freyssinetsystem is assembled on site andnot delivered ready to install, it canbe easily set to the final length andadjusted. “On the contrary, with amonolithic design, pre-fabricatedcables cannot be dismantled andthus require cumbersome installa-tion means compared to Freyssinetstay cables which are installedstrand by strand.” These weren’tthe only advantages Freyssinetcould offer as incentives: the guar-anteed life span of its stay cables

proposed a project with a concretedeck, but the Group’s metal decksolution was chosen in the end.“Use of a metal deck led to muchsmaller total stay cable weight thanthat required by the concrete solu-tion,” he explains. “And the choiceof Eiffel put Freyssinet in competi-tion with the offers of pre-fabricatedcable suppliers, solutions that are,in principle, in line with the philos-ophy of Eiffel whose frames pre-fab-ricated in Lorraine and Fos-sur-Merare delivered ready for assembly onthe site.”“Consequently, it was our job todemonstrate the numerous advan-tages of the Freyssinet stay cablesystem,” continued Manuel Peltier.


to complete these operations.The team was in full force followingclosure of the deck, as if on thestarting line for a 2,460 m sprint – arace in which it needed to paceitself to the progress of the Eiffelteam responsible for erecting thefive remaining pylons while mak-ing sure not to slow down thewaterproofing work behind it.Simultaneously, a part of the teamdefinitively nailed the deck to thepiers. Instructions were to neverinterrupt production whateverhappened. This objective was metthrough the on-site presence of astructural engineer and regularcommunication with the BelgianEngineering Consultancy Com-pany BEG as well as the dedicatedefforts of Jean-Luc Bringer to coor-dinate the team’s operations withEiffel. “Actually,” says Jean-Luc,“only storms in August thatrequired us to evacuate the decksometimes several times per daymade us fear that we wouldn’t beable to keep the deadline.” Thedata initially planned for deliverywas the 9th of September and,thus, the Freyssinet teams’ satisfac-tion today, the 27th of August, iswell-merited…

A Personalized Solution

The contract for the supply andinstallation of stay cables for theMillau Viaduct, the main contractawarded to the company as part ofthe project, forced Freyssinet todemonstrate the advantages of itssystem compared with the competi-tion’s pre-fabricated solutions. Thischallenged to the fears of expertsthat the market would be con-quered by solutions made com-monplace – in other words, that staycables would sooner or later be con-sidered as a “low-tech” product andnot as a solution that offers a well-developed and high-performancetechnology.Manuel Peltier, project manager,recalls that both Freyssinet andEiffage responded to the first call forbids in the summer of 2000. Eiffage

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Jean-Luc Bringer, Freyssinet site manager, grew up in the Millau region, and had been“following” this project for the past 11 or 12 years.

DOSSIER


BROUGHT TOGETHERFROM THE REGIONSof Freyssinet France, butalso from the Rion-Antirionsite in Greece and from all subsidiaries (mainlyfrom Portugal and UnitedKingdom), the Freyssinetteams totaled almost 100 collaborators in thefinal phases of stay cableinstallation. Freyssinet alsocontributed, though with fewer numbers, to the deck launching phaseby performing tensioningand release of thelaunching cables.On top of each pier a smallteam successivelyperformed the operationsto “un-nail” and then “re-nail” the deck.

exceeds the 75 years of the conces-sion contract, and its system isqualified in application of the CIPrecommendations for stay cablesand the watertightness test of itspatented cable guided/stuffing boxdevice that protects the anchoringblocks from corrosion.“This project was always viewed asan enormous challenge and weneeded to provide convincing evi-dence of the company’s capabilityto complete work within defineddeadlines. Freyssinet’s great bodyof experience obtained over thepast 10 years in the construction ofseveral bridges of the same size wasprobably the deciding factor forEiffel,” concludes Manuel Peltier. n

ON SITE

Tools to Support the MethodsFrom June 2003 to April 2004 deck launching, performed during "breaks in the weather” that lasted onaverage four days, required double the effort from the Freyssinet teams. On the piers and temporarybents, installed to divide each 342 m span into 171 m sub-spans, this phase involved un-nailing of thedeck following by re-nailing after launching.On pylons P2 and P3 24 stay cables were used as launching cables to support the cantilevered deckand, under the effect of deck deformations, were successively tensioned when the deck reached thebents and piers and were then loosened. To limit and control angular deformation at the anchoringpoints they were installed on pylons and the deck was placed on special deviation saddles. “Thesedevices,” explains Jean-Luc Bringer, “guarantee that the cable strands will not be subjected to combinedstress due to tension and bending greater than 60% of the guaranteed breaking point and that theanchoring and anti-corrosion systems will not be damaged during launching.”

special stay cablewedges (patented)

variable strandoverlenght

cap

steel anchorage tube

anchorage block surface corrosionprotected - externally threaded on

adjustable anchorage

soft corrosion protection materialoptimising fatigue resistance stuffing box / strand guide

assembly (patented)

4

•Tested at pressures greaterthan 10 bars, thewatertightness of the stuffingbox (1) / strand guidedeveloped by Freyssinetprotects the cables fromcorrosion at the anchoringpoints.•To control vibration,Freyssinet has access to acomplete range of internal(3,4,5) and external dampers.•A "needle" system(aiguilles), or interconnectioncables (6), placed on eachside of the stay cablescorrects their parametricinstability.•In accordance with the mostrecent CIP recommendations,a 55-strand cable identical to the model used in Millauwas subjected to a fatiguetest in the Central Laboratoryof Bridges and Roads inNantes (France) (2) to qualifythe Freyssinet system.•The patented FreyssinetIsotension system (7) makesit possible to strictly applythe same tension to allstrands in a stay cable.


The Freyssinet HD stay cable, thatcan be composed of between 1 and169 strands, is based on the prin-ciple that each of its componentsare completely independent at alllevels: anchoring, corrosion pro-tection, installation, tensioningand replacement.

bility and optimum anti-corrosionprotection. The seven wires of thestrand are galvanized and isolatedfrom each other with petroleumwax. Since the mid-1990s the fillingof the wax and extrusion of thesheath covering the wires have beenperformed in thermodynamic con-

ditions that result in “semi-adher-ence”; thus guaranteeing that thestrands withstand extreme thermalconditions. “Freyssinet stay cableanchors and high resistance steelblocks, in which the strands areindividually anchored with jaws,are, mechanically speaking, mainlycharacterized by limited fatigue andresidual resistance to breaking, thatis caused due to fatigue,” explainsBenoît Lecinq, Freyssinet technicaldirector. The company subjectedthe system to intense fatigue tests

The common part of Freyssinet staycables consists of a parallel bundleof semi-adherent T15.7 strands(called monostrands) threaded intoa collective HDPE (high densitypolyethylene) sheath. The mono-strands were developed andpatented to ensure excellent dura-

A computer model to design the dampers.

3

1

5

The Advantages of a State-of-the-Art System

IED (Internal ElastomericDamper).

IHD (Internal Hydraulic Damper). IRD (Internal Radial Damper).


DOSSIER

by axial tension, in conjunctionwith cross fatigue, followed bybreaking tests by tension.

A computer model to define damper size

The results from independent labo-ratories either meet or exceed theprincipal acceptance criteria of theCIP (French Interministerial Com-mission on Prestressing).Moreover, anchor durability isclosely correlated with its water-tightness and corrosion protection.The watertightness of the cablestuffing box used with the Freys-sinet system withstood pressuresgreater than 10 bars in tests. TheFreyssinet stay cable anchors alsopassed the watertightness test recommended by the CIP. Theanchor-cable system was encasedin a 3 m tube filled with water. Tosimulate real environmental condi-tions, the cable was subjected, forseven weeks, to repeated cycles oftension and bending at water tem-peratures varying between 20°C and70°C. Upon dissection at the end ofthe assay, no water infiltration wasobserved. Over the past few yearscable vibration engineering hasbecome one of the specialties ofFreyssinet. The company devel-oped a computer model to calcu-late absorption requirements anddevelop the most appropriatedampers. A precise diagnosis ofstay cable stability is presented foreach project and a complete rangeof anti-vibration devices is offered.In addition to external spiraledsheaths, Freyssinet can offer a largerange of internal and externaldampers. The internal dampers areinstalled in the anchors, and theexternal dampers are placed on anauxiliary support. To absorb “para-metric instability” of the cables, a“needle” system was developed.This system is composed of inter-connection cables that are unbro-ken and that are placed on eitherside of the lateral plane of staycables. They were notably used onthe Normandy Bridge. n

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6 7

HISTORY

30 Years of Long-Distance DevelopmentThe stay cable technology composed of prestressing strands was first used on the Brotonne Bridge inFrance in 1977 and the Rande Bridge in Spain in 1978. At that time stay cables were a parallel bundleof strands inserted in a metal (Brotonne) or polyethylene (Rande) sheath, injected with the cementgrout. The technology evolved during the 1980s with the creation of individual protection of the rein-forcements, and improvement of anchor performance under fatigue using cleats. In 1988 while severalcable-stayed structures were being built in the USA, using a technology similar to that used for the Bro-tonne Bridge, the Wandre Bridge in Belgium was constructed using, for the first time, stay cables withindividually protected strands. Then a new trend appeared: injection of stay cables into wax (secondbridge over the Severn in Great Britain in 1996). During the 1990s individual parallel strand protectionbecame more diverse. To reduce the drag coefficient on the Normandy Bridge stay cables the individu-ally protected strands were enclosed in an envelope composed of two half shells profiled into the shapeof a double helix. Today, this envelope has been replaced by a continuous sheath that is aerodynamicand asthetically pleasing whilst also providing ultraviolet ray protection.

Second Semester 2004 Soils & Structures 11

R E A L I Z A T I O N S

LOCATED ON THE EDGE OF THEVILLAGE OF ALQUO’A, one and

a half hours by car from the city ofAl-Ain and near to the border withOman, a real estate project plansfor the construction of a divisionof 550 villas among the desertdunes. This endeavor launchedby the city of Al-Ain will houseBedouins currently becoming in-creasingly settled.A 3.5 million square meter platformon which the buildings will be con-structed was created in the sand.The summits of the dunes were flat-tened and the depressions, theequivalent of a surface area of 1 mil-lion square meters, were filled in.“The sandy desert soil was formedin successive layers without com-paction,” explains Étienne Dhiver,the project engineer. In this loosestate, the ground was at risk of set-tling under its own weight or that ofthe villas. To avoid such settlementthat would damage the new build-ings, Ménard Soltraitement steppedin. The company had two solutionsat its disposal to guarantee a maxi-mum of 2.5 cm of foundation settle-ment and provide the necessaryground bearing capacity: vibroflota-tion (or vibrocompaction) anddynamic compaction. “The first

technique required quantities ofwater that exceeded possible supplyin the middle of the desert and thusthe second was the only logicalsolution,” specifies Dominique Jul-lienne, Manager of the Middle EastMénard Soltraitement subsidiary.

35 tons in Free Fall

For the large backfill operations upto depths of 25 m, the companyrelied on seven cranes capable ofdelivering nearly 900tons/meter onimpact (equivalent of a 35 t massesreleased from a height of 25 m) andapplied the new MARS process(Menard Automatic Release Sys-tem) that allows the free fall of 35 t masses without energy loss dueto braking or friction. “This auto-matic release system, developed forthis site, optimizes the energy ofground compaction by increasingits deep impact and represents atechnological advancement in thefield of granular soil compaction,”tells us Étienne Dhiver. This tech-nique also made it possible to com-plete treatment in merely ninemonths instead of the elevenmonths provided for in the con-tract. Michel Piquet, project man-ager, concludes, “We were able tofinish the project at the end of June

In Abu Dhabi (United ArabEmirates), in the middle of the desert, Ménard

Soltraitement treated a 3.5 millionsquare meter platform by dynamiccompaction in preparation for the future construction of 550 villas.

SOILS/ALQUO’A PLOT

A City in the Desert

Owner: city of Al-Ain. Main Contractor:Hyder Consulting.Contractors:Al Ghafly, Nael and NTCC. Specialized Contractor:Ménard Soltraitement.

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PARTICIPANTS

and thereby avoided the extremeheat of the months of July andAugust when temperatures riseabove 50°C.” n


REALIZATIONS

THE MARS PROCESS (MENARD AUTOMATIC RELEASE SYSTEM) optimizes the energy from ground compaction byeliminating energy loss from braking or friction.


The delicate phase ofconstruction of the largestAustralian airport hangar,

jacking of a 3,000 t truss to a height of 25 m, was assigned to Austress Freyssinet.


THE BRISBANE AIRPORT MAIN-TENANCE HANGAR is the lar-

gest facility of its type in Australiaand it has marked a major coup forthe Queensland State Governmentin cooperation with the principalcontractor Multiplex Constructions.This “state of the art” building willfeature a 160 m wide steel trussweighing 3,000 t supported by eight40 m high concrete columns. Theimpressive proportions of thehangar will allow it to simultane-ously accommodate three B767 air-craft or one massive Airbus A380-100 wide-bodied aircraft. The construction procedure wassimple, erect the concrete columns,fabricate the truss on a 3 m hightemporary support, then lift thetruss to its final position on the

columns and mechanically lock itinto place. Austress Freyssinet wasresponsible for the heavy lift. “Toperform the operation, we attachedspecialist lifting jacks to steel plat-forms that were temporarily fittedto the top of the concrete columns”explains Tony Mitchell, the projectmanager. The two front columnseach had 2 No x 400 t jacks and thesix back columns were each fittedwith 2 No x 150 t jacks. The jackswere hydraulically linked to a cen-tral control system where theycould be operated individually orin any combination. In addition,video surveillance cameras com-bined with a laser survey systemallowed for monitoring jack loadsand the truss height from the cen-tral control.

Owner: Government of the State of Queensland. Main Contractor: MultiplexConstructions. Specialized Contractor:Austress Freyssinet.

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Curve and CamberThe lift was completed in threestages. “Pre-jacking the truss by the initial 5 m was the most diffi-cult part of the operation due to the pre-camber of 1.5 m in thefront section that would straightenunder load.” advised Tony Mitchell.Months of planning was requiredto develop an incremental jackingsequence which would allow theload to transfer to the truss fromtemporary supports without over-stressing structural elements.Deformation of the camber in thefrontal truss under various loadsand the method required to main-tain the structure horizontal bycompensating for the reduction incurvature was carefully studied.More classical in nature, the second

Lift of a Heavy Weight

phase hoisted the truss 25 m off theground to its final position. All per-manent steel connections wereassembled and the load was thentransferred from the jacks to thestructure. Six Austress team mem-bers completed the lifting opera-tion in three days and the hangarwas handed over on the 21st ofJune 2004. n

STRUCTURES/BRISBANE AIRPORT HEAVY MAINTENANCE HANGAR

All the lifting jacks wereconnected to a centralcontrol system andcould be operated individually or in combination.


REALIZATIONS

SOILS/A51 MOTORWAY

A Mountain RecordTerreArmée SNC won

a contract for the installation of 30,000 m2

of Reinforced Earth walls on theGrenoble-Sisteronmotorway (France).This recordcontract forced thecompany to adjustits productionmethods.

THE MOTORWAY PROJECTOWNER, AREA, received the

green light on July 2001 and workbegan on the Coynelle-Fau Passsection of the A51 motorway to thesouth of Grenoble. This new10.5 km-long section will, by mid-2006 become an extension of the16 km section already open to traf-fic between Claix and Coynellesince 2000. The road is situated in a mountainous region with steepslopes that required the use of splitcarriageways.“Reinforced Earth is particularlywell-adapted to this type of config-uration where rocky terrain alter-nates with loose soil,” explains EricLucas, technical director of TerreArmée SNC. In total, 10,000 m2 ofnailed walls and 30,000 m2 of Rein-forced Earth structures will guaran-tee stability of the slopes and sup-port of the roadways. Five walls arecurrently under construction. Themaximum height of one single rise

Owner: Area (Rhone-AlpsMotorways). Main Contractor: Scetauroute. Engineer : Guintoli-GTS-Bianco-Eurovia-MTS-CampenonBernard Régions joint-venture.Specialized Contractor:Terre Armée SNC.

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PARTICIPANTS

is 18 m but, with superposing sec-tions, the total height reaches 22 min some locations. Their construc-tion was assigned to the Guintoli-GTS-Bianco-Eurovia-MTS-Cam-penon Bernard Régions joint ven-

ture, that successfully bid for thework, which includes earthworks,structures and restoration of traffic.“This was a complex project forTerre Armée requiring a mixture oftechnical and architectural tech-niques,” explains Pierre Sery, direc-tor of Terre Armée SNC.

Inspiration from the Cliffs

SoilTech, the technical departmentof the Reinforced Earth Company,performed a study to verify thebehavior of the EPDM padsbetween the cladding panels. Con-cerning the aesthetic aspects, theJourda agency designed a surfacedecorated with a motif reminiscent

of the rocky cliff surroundings. Allthe scales were then prefabricatedin a partner factory of Terre ArméeSNC using underwater cement toguarantee concrete quality andresistance to freezing and deicingsalts. Construction of the retainingwalls began last May and will continue until August 2005. “Withthree teams at work, the rate of con-struction averages 170 m2 of facearea per day and reaches up to 200 m2,” states a proud Pierre Sery.This rate of installation led TerreArmée SNC to acquire 67 forms, 60 of which are equipped with spe-cific mats to reproduce the archi-tectural pattern. n

In addition to retainingwalls, Terre Armée SNC was responsible for the studies and for the supply of materials for the construction of load bearingabutments for the upperpassage of the Sinard,constructed byCampenon BernardRégions. Ease ofconstruction alsocontributed to theadoption of theReinforced Earthsolution.



STRUCTURES/CENTENNIAL BRIDGE

Bridging The Two Americas

Ninety years after the openingof the canal, Panama recently

inaugurated a new structure over the famous pass. Several entities inthe Group participated in the project.

FIFTEEN KM NORTH OF THEBRIDGE OF THE AMERICAS

constructed 40 years ago, the Cen-tennial Bridge (the celebration ofthe 100th anniversary of Panama’swas held at the end of 2003) willhold the new east-west motorwaybuilt to reduce traffic on the oldstructure by 50%. This structure,built over the Culera valley, meas-ures a total of 1,052 m and rises to80m above the canal. With theseproportions, the Titan floatingcrane can be passed underneathfor lock maintenance and the canalcan be later widened to 275 m.The main bridge is comprised oftwo 200 m end spans and a 420 mcentral span. Access is gainedthrough four spans varying from 46 to 66 m in length. Composed of

regular 34 m-wide and 4.5 m-highconcrete box structures, the deck ofthe main bridge was prestressedcrosswise and lengthwise with steelcables (800 t) and is supported by128 stay cables (1,400 t) anchoredevery 6 m and protected with whiteexternal HDPE (high density poly-ethylene) ducts. All these compo-nents were supplied and installedby Freyssinet. During constructionof the bridge, the main challengeset before the main contractor, Bil-finger Berger, was the time con-straint. To allow opening of thestructure on the 15th of August2004, the anniversary of inaugura-tion of the canal by passage of theAmerican ship Ancon on the 15thof August 1914, work was limited to29 months. In addition, the con-

tractor was required to organizework so as to never interrupt trafficin the canal. Particularly difficultduring the sensitive phase of staycable installation, this constraintwas a factor in the choice of theconstruction methods used. Theaccess spans were cast in situ onscaffolding while the main bridgewas built by cantilever. The mobileformwork travellers were used toinstall both the segments on piersand the members. “Bilfinger Bergerassigned us the formidable task oflifting the steel mobile formworktravellers,” explains John March-ese, Freyssinet works manager onsite. Once they were partiallyassembled at the base of the towers,

Owner: Ministerio de obraspúblicas, Panama.Preliminary Design: T.Y. Lin.Detailed Design, ConsultingEngineers and TemporaryWork: Leonhardt, Ändra und Partner. Main Contractor: BilfingerBerger. Specialized Contractor:Freyssinet International & Cie,Austress Freyssinet, Freyssinet Iberian-AmericanDivision.

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INTERVENANTS

Located in an earthquake-riskregion, the Centennial Bridge

can withstand groundaccelerations of up to 0.33 g.


REALIZATIONS

bridge, and the use of temporary“Bailey” bridges to allow traffic topass through the site during thework. The design featured exten-sive use of Reinforced Earth retain-ing walls, both temporary with Terratrel wire mesh facing, andpermanent, with precast concreteTerraClass facing panels.

Solutions on a case-by-case basis

Though at first glance a conven-tional project, it held many sur-prises for the engineers of Rein-forced Earth Ltd, requiring all theiringenuity. “The absence of an accu-rate map of the underground net-works meant that we had to adaptour solutions on a case-by-casebasis,” explains Don Asbey-Palmer,engineering manager of Reinforced

Earth Ltd. The building of the south-ern abutment was complicated bythe discovery that a 300 mm diame-ter high-pressure gas main waslocated in the middle of the struc-ture, instead of to one side. As thepipe walls were not thick enough tocarry the extra height of the newbridge, the structure was redesignedto use lightweight pumice fill. Thestaging of the bridge constructionwas achieved with the use of two,seven metre high TerraTrel tempo-rary walls, with welded wire meshfacing panelsIn total, some 1,552 square metersof permanent retaining walls withprecast concrete TerraClass facingpanels, as well as 280 square metersof temporary TerraTrel walls. Thework began in January 2003 and wascompleted in July 2004. n

FIRST BUILT 150 YEARS ago formilitary needs, the Great South

Road remains one of the importantnorth-south roads in Auckland. Inthe South Auckland industrial area itintersects with Sylvia Park Road,running east to west, before crossingthe North Island Main Truck Railwayby means of a steep, narrow bridge.The combination of the intersec-tion and adjacent bridge had cre-ated a traffic “bottleneck” whichhad grown steadily worse as trafficdensity increased – 37,000 vehiclesare converging on the intersectiondaily. The current project consistedof widening the roads to add newlanes and building a new, widerbridge to current standardsThe Contractor won the Projectwith an alternative design, involv-ing staged construction of the

these two tools, each weighing390 t, were installed using two180 t-capacity cable jacks in addi-tion to two 50 t jacks. Lifting wasperformed between Septemberand October 2003. “The operationwas divided into two phases: thefirst portion of the mobile form-work travellers was lifted 70 m andput into final place using tempo-rary hangars. Then, the second partwas hoisted up and attached to thefirst to form one unit. The installa-tion of each mobile formwork trav-ellers and subsequent safety con-trols took 10 hours.”Raja Asmar, Freyssinet project dir-ector: “With two teams working intwo shifts seven days a week, goodcoordination between the variouscollaborators on the site made itpossible to achieve four-day manu-facturing cycles per segment andper mobile formwork travellers.”Once the bank spans and closure ofthe central span were completed,the mobile formwork travellerswere brought down in June andJuly 2004. Because traffic could notbe interrupted, the mobile form-work travellers could not be low-ered in the middle of the canal.Using launching techniques, theFreyssinet teams brought themobile traveling forms down thetowers. They were then removedusing four 180 t-capacity jacksattached to the deck with thestrands passed through openings.Each removal took 8 hours. n

SOILS/UPGRADED INTERSECTION IN AUCKLAND

Custom passageThe redevelopment of an important intersectionin the City of Auckland, in which the NewZealand subsidiary, Reinforced Earth Ltd,

participated, required all the ingenuity of its engineers.



OPENED LAST JULY 28TH, a foot-bridge designed with a fish bas-

ket in mind crosses the Pisuergariver and connects the city centerwith the Valladolid ScienceMuseum. The 234 m structure isnotably composed of a hexagonalprism inside which the pedestrianswalk. After construction of the piersand cast in situ construction of awhite concrete span, the elementswere installed using a crane. Thecentral span was put in place usinga barge.“This section, the longest in the

structure, involved longitudinaland hexagonal prestressing,” speci-fied Patrick Ladret, technical direc-tor of Freyssinet SA in Spain. Eachof the 15 sections was prestressedwith a peripheral cable that passesover the six crests of the hexagon.This original design led Freyssinetto develop, under the supervisionof the Engineering ConsultancyCompany MC2, a deviation saddlefor inconspicuous passage of thecable and effective transmission ofstress. Based on full-scale tests per-formed at PPC, the Group’s factory,

STRUCTURES/VALLADOLID FOOTBRIDGE

Technological Manifesto at the Science Museum

Conceived by the architectsJosé Rafael Moneo andEnrique de Teresa, this

contemporary/unique design for theValladolid Science Museum’s (Spain)new footbridge illustrates thecreative possibilities available usingwith prestressing and stay cables.


REALIZATIONS

From design to methods,Freyssinet took responsibilityfor complete engineering of

a device for a complex jackingoperation.

THE THAI STATE is sparing noeffort in welcoming foreign visi-

tors and has begun work on a newInternational Airport outside Bang-kok due to open in September2005. Built using modern architec-ture, its seven story terminal(182,000 square meters) is locatedaround thirty kilometers to the eastof the capital and in the long-termshould have a capacity of 100 mil-lion passengers a year.Work began in 2002 with the con-

struction and the erection of themonumental metal truss coveringthe main terminal building. By mid-2004 the work was progressing withthe assembly of a second metalstructure, intended this time for theconcourse. Lifting operation doneby mobile crane has to be discard-ed because of limited space. Freyssi-net Thailand was awarded by ItalianThai Development Co. Ltd, themain contractor, the constructionmethod and detailed design of the

STRUCTURES/NEW BANGKOK AIRPORT

A multipurpose gantry crane

PARTICIPANTS

Owner: Aguas del Duero.Architects: José Rafael Moneo,Enrique de Teresa. Consulting Engineers:MC2 Ingeniería.Main Contractor: Pisuergaalliance (Puentes y Calzadas and Joca Ingenieria). Specialized Contractor:Freyssinet SA.

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In addition to its mechanicalfunction, the external

prestressing cable grid lookslike the fish baskets which

inspired the architect's design.

to measure the resistance of thestrands to deviation, and, in theFreyssinet SA facilities in Zamudionear Vizcaya to verify their slidingonto the saddles, the solution pro-posed to MC2, and finally chosen“associates anchoring to the topand bottom crests of the hexagon,the major angular deviation points,and of the deviation saddles to theintermediary extremities,” explainsAlberto GonzáLez Bueno, study andbusiness engineer for Freyssinet.

The patented Freyssinet Cohestrandcable system was chosen for itsmechanical performance andanchoring was provided with Sys-tem C blocks. Longitudinally, sixexternal prestressing cables werearranged along the hexagon crests.Forming a 110 m parabola betweenthe two piers, these cables wereslightly deviated at the anchoragepoints and hexagonal prestressingdeviation saddles. Patrick Ladretexplains: “We had to find the bestsolution to fit the architecturaldesign to offer prestressing withstrands that could be individuallydisassembled if necessary.” Thelarge number of direction changes(90) excluded the use of saddlesseparating the strands individuallyfor financial and technical reasons.Thus, external prestressing inject-ed into the cement grout with 4C15and 7C15 anchors was used. Asintegral parts of the structure, the

ducts and strands were placed onthe footbridge before the transla-tion operations. “Like a catenary,specifies Alberto González Bueno,we used a temporary strand toinstall the ducts and individuallythread the strands before injectingall the cement grout.” n

Also see page 4.

gantry and its support rail system.All the lifting work were carried outby the main contractor. “We sup-plied the studies and method state-ment, as well as the detailed draw-ings and calculation sheet for thelifting system,” indicates Likhasit

Kittisatra, of Freyssinet Thailand.“The real specialty of the system isthat the gantry is not only capable oflifting and moving a segment of thestructure but of rotating more orless within 30 degrees in plan viewfrom center axis.” n



SOILS/BOURGOIN-JALLIEU PLATFORM

A Safe, Simple andEconomical Solution

In Isère (France), the benefits of an innovative solutionproposed by Ménard

in joint-venture led the pack.

HOW CAN LOOSE SOIL BEIMPROVED to enable it to sup-

port both the dead and operatingloads of a building? In order toallow the introduction of a do-it-yourself superstore in the Mal-adière industrial zone in Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère, France), this questionwas placed before the geotechni-cians of the Experimental Centerfor Building and Public WorksResearch and Studies (CEBTP). Theinitial analyses, revealed that thefoundation of the 30,000 m2 sitecomprised a highly compressible,8 m deep clay-peat layer on top of alayer of sand and compact gravel.To prepare the terrain, a distribu-tion mattress (primary backfill)was placed in in two zones. Thefirst, designed to support the futureslab, was made up of two 30 cm lay-ers of inert compacted material fol-

lowed by 47 cm layer of compactedgravel laid on an ordinary geotex-tile. Over the remainder of the ter-rain, this distribution mattress was1.20 m thick made up of a single60 cm layer of inert compactedmaterial and a 60 cm layer of gravellaid on a geotextile.

Simplified Design

The specifications for soil consoli-dation required the installation ofhard inclusions covered with a 1mthick layer of form and a reinforcedconcrete slab. Christian Ernst ofMénard Soltraitement: "Workingtogether, Ménard Soltraitementand Keller-Fondations Spécialesproposed a solution based on theuse of columns formed of hardinclusions in the clay-peat layerand topped, through the upper 2 mof backfill, with dry stone columns.

“This method simplified the designof the structure itself compared tothe original solution and made itpossible to avoid "construction oflarge reinforced concrete slabs thatwould have been necessary toabsorb the negative forces causedby the hard points (inclusions).” In addition, these inclusions wereat great risk of being sheared bythe earthworks equipment duringthe backfill operations. Anotherclear advantage of the bi-modulus

PARTICIPANTS

Owner: Castorama. Architect: Paul Barbier. Specialized Contractor:Ménard Soltraitement (project leader) and Keller Fondations Spécialesjoint-venture.

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columns compared to hard inclu-sions throughout was their betterresistance to earthquakes. Christ-ian Ernst tells us: “The dry columnsplaced on top of the inclusionseliminated the hard point andinterstitial settlement phenomena.Thus, the structure is guaranteed towithstand earthquakes.”The process, with all elementsaccurately downscaled, was vali-dated in test specimen assays, conepenetration tests and in situ testswith 150% overload of the columns.Measurements performed in paral-lel illustrated the homogeneity ofsettlement throughout the entiresurface. n

PRINCIPLE OF INSTALLATION OF BI-MODULUS COLUMNS (BMC)


REALIZATIONS

STRUCTURES/AVE VIADUCT

A Kit of 39 Spans

tors on which the slabs were cast.“To avoid beam movement duringpre-slab placement and slab pour-ing, we temporarily connected thebeams in groups of two usingcables and four jacks,” continuedSalvador Lorente. On each span, 60plates with 5.9 m lost frameworksequipped with connectors wereplaced on the precast beams toform the abutments of the viaductand cover the U. To join the twoparallel beams, 30 concrete plateswith reinforced lost frameworkswere installed. n

PARTICIPANTS

Owner: GIF.Engineer: Inocsa.Main Contractor: Necso.Specialized Contractor:Tierra Armada SA.

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Precasting and installation: in Spain, the Group’s subsidiary,Tierra Armada, participated

in two phases of construction of a largerailway structure.

ON THE TOLEDO-MONCEJÓNSECTION of the future Spanish

high-speed railway line, TierraArmada helped construct thelargest viaduct it had ever workedon. The 1,659 m long structure iscomposed of forty-two 36 m spans.With the exception of the 3 centralspans that were cast in situ, the 39others were composed of two pre-cast parallel U beams. We wereinvolved in different phases of thisproject, explains Salvador Lorente,general director of Tierra Armada.First off, in our Loeches factorynear Madrid, we fabricated the 78beams (39 pairs) as well as the pre-slabs and slabs. We then installedthem on the structure. “Once deliv-ered to the site by special wide loaddelivery, the beams, each weighing160t, were installed by crane on thepot bearings on the head of thepier; These were then covered withpre-slabs equipped with connec-

Manufactured using B50 self-placing concrete to simplify casting into themould, the U beams are composed of 10.5 t of passivesteel, 64 m3 of concrete and5.4 t of prestressing steel.


T R A N S V E R S E

CONFERENCES

The Freyssinet StayCable on Tour in Asia

The paradox of advanced tech-nologies is that their applica-

tions often become commonplace.To prevent this risk and to increaseknowledge of the recently-devel-oped high performance stay cablesystems, Freyssinet organized twoconferences that brought togetheraround 400 guests at the beginningof 2004. The first was held in Hong


various stay cable configurations,from the central line of stays to thefour-stay lines used for biggerstructures; he highlighted the evo-lution of decks to composite solu-tions and of pylons to forms that

René Walther.

Bruno Dupety.

Karl Frank.

Michel Virlogeux.

to systems with parallel cablesthreaded into metal sheaths orHDPE. He also stressed the need tofollow the recommendations of thefib to search for “multibarrier” staycable protection methods. MichelVirlogeux, consulting engineer anddesigner, presented the vibrationproblems encountered by design-ers. Supported by mathematicalillustrations, he presented the vari-ous types of vibration and “para-metric excitation” and then detailedthe devices available to eliminate orreduce these phenomena, such assheath helicoidal fillets developedfor the Normandy Bridge or the

Last spring, Freyssinet organized two conferences in Asia; This regionof the world is where the largestbridge projects are carried out today.

Kong on the 31st of March and thesecond in Tokyo on the 2nd ofApril. In his introduction, BrunoDupety, the chief executive officerof Freyssinet International, stress-ed the public’s fascination withcable-stayed bridges, and the factthat the great strides made over thepast 30 years in terms of durabi-lity, mechanical performance and

installation will make way for evenmore daring projects. Honoraryprofessor at the École polytech-nique of Lausanne (Switzerland),René Walther presented the briefhistory of these structures. Illus-trated with many images, his pres-entation gave an overview of the

give architects more room forimagination and audacity. Thedurability of stay cables, key to thestructural design, was discussed byProfessor Karl Frank from the Uni-versity of Austin, Texas (USA). Basedon the example of the bridges ofMaracaibo Lake (Venezuela) andKohlbrand (Germany), he dealt withthe problem of locked coil strandcorrosion and showed the evolution

TRANSVERSE


damping of stay cables using specialdevices (needles, internal and exter-nal dampers). In Hong Kong, thechief engineer of the China Ministryof Communications, Maorun Feng,gave an overview of all large struc-tures completed or under construc-tion in his country since the mid-1970s. Over the last 10 years, con-struction of 23 cable-stayed bridgesand 13 suspended bridges, all with a central span over 400 m, has beeninitiated, and 28 of them are al-ready in service. The Chinese offi-cial explained that, in the future,we will witness cable-stayed struc-tures with spans over 1,000 m. Anexample is the Sutong Bridge cur-

rently under construction that willbecome, in 2008, the longest bridgein the world with a 1,088 m centralspan. Jérôme Stubler and BenoîtLecinq, deputy general director

and technical manager of Freys-sinet respectively, presented theFreyssinet HD stay cable system(see the article on p. 6) and boastedthe successful results from the CIPwatertightness test to the audito-rium. The consulting engineer,Reiner Saul, summarized in HongKong the evolution of cable-stayedbridges designed, controlled orsupervised by Leonhardt, Andrä

und Partner over the last decade.He stressed that parallel cable sys-tems have become the solution ofchoice throughout the world. Onthe same subject, but this time inJapan, Yoshinobu Kubo, Professorin the Civil Engineering depart-ment of the Kyushu TechnologicalInstitute, reviewed the numerouscable-stayed structures con-structed in his country after theKatsuse Bridge. Focusing in partic-ular on the structural and aerody-namic evolution of structures, hepointed out that the size of centralspans of cable-stayed bridges hadincreased by 12 m per year in Japan.He concluded that, based on testsperformed in Japan on structureslike the Shin-Onomichi, multi-strand stay cables would becomethe preferred solution. n

Maorun Feng.

Jérôme Stubler.

Benoît Lecinq.

Reiner Saul.

DEVELOPMENT

Launching of AustressMenard

GROWTH

Opening of FreyssinetAdria

After their successfulcollaboration duringconstruction of the Townsvillesugar terminal, one toconsolidate the soil and theother to install the floorprestressing (see Soils &Structures no. 217), MénardSoltraitement and AustressFreyssinet have createdAustress Menard. Managed by Paul McBarron, this new entity will be active ingeotechnic engineering and soil improvement in the region including Australiaand New Zealand. It’sportfolio of processes andtechniques includesFreyssimix jet groutingcolumns, ground anchors,dynamic compaction,dynamic substitution andcontrolled modulus columns(CMC). n

Austress Menard37, Prime Drive Seven HillsSydney N.S.W [email protected]

Yoshinobu Kubo.

Following a few years of successful collaboration in the framework of variousprojects such as the Crni KalViaduct (Slovenia), Freyssinetand the Slovene companyPrimorje recently created a common subsidiary to develop the activities ofFreyssinet and ReinforcedEarth in Slovenia, Croatia andBosnia. Andrej Kosir wasnamed operational director.The new entity was baptizedby the general directors of the two groups in thepresence of the EconomicExpansion Agency (PEE) of the French Embassy in Ljublijana, the press andSlovene television. n

Freyssinet Adria5270 Ajdovscina Vipavska Cesta 3 Slovenia Tel.: +386 5 36 90 331 Fax: +386 5 36 90 200

Measuring 1,056 m in lengthand 26.5 m in width, the CrniKal motorway viaduct crossesthe Osp Valley with piers over110 m high. Constructed by the SCT d.d. and Primorje d.d., the structure used Freyssinetprestressing the piers and deck.

Africa and middle-East

EgyptFreyssinet EgyptGizaPhone: (20.2) 345 81 65Fax: (20.2) 345 52 37

KuwaitFreyssinet International & Co.SafatTel.: (965) 906 7854Fax: (965) 563 5384

South AfricaFreyssinet Posten Pty LtdOlifantsfonteinPhone: (27.11) 316 21 74Fax: (27.11) 316 29 18

Reinforced Earth Pty LtdJohannesburgPhone: (27.11) 726 6180Fax: (27.11) 726 5908

United Arab EmiratesFreyssinet Middle East LLCDubaïPhone: (971) 4 286 8007Fax: (971) 4 286 8009

Freyssinet Gulf LLCDubaïPhone: (971) 4 286 8007Fax: (971) 4 286 8009

America

ArgentinaFreyssinet - Tierra Armada SABuenos AiresPhone: (54.11) 4372 7291Fax: (54.11) 4372 5179

BrazilTerra Armada LtdaRio de JaneiroPhone: (55.21) 2233 7353Fax: (55.21) 2263 4842

CanadaReinforced Earth Company LtdMississaugaPhone: (1.905) 564 0896Fax: (1.905) 564 2609

ChileFreyssinet - Tierra Armada S.ASantiago de ChilePhone: (56.2) 2047 543Fax: (56.2) 225 1608

ColombiaStup de ColombiaBogotaPhone: (57.1) 257 4103Fax: (57.1) 610 3898

Tierra Armada LtdaBogotaPhone: (57.1) 236 3786Fax: (57.1) 610 3898

El SalvadorFessic SA de CVLa LibertadPhone: (503) 278 8603Fax: (503) 278 0445

GuatemalaPresforzados Técnicos SAGuatemala CityPhone: (502) 2204 236Fax: (502) 2500 150

MexicoFreyssinet de México SA de CVMexico DFPhone: (52.55) 5250 7000Fax: (52.55) 5255 0165

Tierra Armada SA de CVMexico DFPhone: (52.55) 5250 7000Fax: (52.55) 5255 0165

United StatesDrainage & GroundImprovement, Inc - MénardBridgeville, PAPhone: (1.412) 257 2750Fax : (1.412) 257 8455

Freyssinet LLCChantilly, VAPhone: (1.703) 378 2500Fax: (1.703) 378 2700

The Reinforced Earth CompanyVienna, VAPhone: (1.703) 821 1175Fax: (1.703) 821 1815

VenezuelaFreyssinet - Tierra Armada CaCaracas DFPhone: (58.212) 576 6685Fax: (58.212) 577 7570

Asia

Hong KongFreyssinet Hong Kong LtdKwung Tong - KowloonPhone: (852) 2794 0322Fax : (852) 2338 3264

Reinforced Earth Pacific LtdKwung TongPhone: (852) 2782 3163Fax: (852) 2332 5521

IndonesiaPT Freyssinet Total TechnologyJakartaPhone: (62.21) 830 0222Fax: (62.21) 830 9841

JapanFKKTokyoPhone: (81.3) 5220 2181Fax: (81.3) 5220 9726

TAKKTokyoPhone: (81.44) 722 6361Fax: (81.44) 722 3133

MalaysiaFreyssinet PSC (M) Sdn BhdKuala LumpurPhone: (60.3) 7982 85 99Fax: (60.3) 7981 55 30

Ménard Geosystems Sdn BhdSubang Jaya SelangorPhone: (60.3) 5632 1581Fax: (60.3) 5632 1582

Reinforced Earth ManagementServices Sdn BhdKuala LumpurPhone: (60.3) 6274 6162Fax: (60.3) 6274 7212

PakistanReinforced Earth Pvt LtdIslamabadPhone: (92.51) 2273 501Fax: (92.51) 2273 503

SingaporePSC Freyssinet (S) Pte LtdSingapourPhone: (65) 6899 0323Fax: (65) 6899 0761

Reinforced Earth (SEA) Pte LtdSingapourPhone: (65) 6566 9080Fax: (65) 6565 6605

South KoreaFreyssinet Korea Co. LtdSéoulPhone: (82.2) 2056 0500Fax: (82.2) 515 4185

Sangjee Ménard Co. LtdSéoulPhone: (82.2) 587 9286Fax: (82.2) 587 9285

ThailandFreyssinet Thailand LtdBangkokPhone: (66.2) 266 6088/90Fax: (66.2) 266 6091

VietnamFreyssinet VietnamHanoiPhone: (84.4) 826 1416Fax: (84.4) 826 1118

Europe

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AustraliaAustress Freyssinet Pty LtdSeven HillsPhone: (61.2) 9674 4044Fax: (61.2) 9674 5967

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Austress Freyssinet Pty LtdMelbournePhone: (61.3) 9326 58 85Fax: (61.3) 9326 89 96

The Reinforced Earth CompanyHornsbyPhone: (61.2) 9910 9900Fax: (61.2) 9910 9999

New ZealandFreyssinet New Zealand Ltd -Reinforced Earth LtdAucklandPhone: (64.9) 2363 385Fax : (64.9) 2363 385

ZOOMExpressConstruction in Africa

The Freyssinet Group around the world

On the future 265 km motorway underconstruction between Nhaoundéré(Cameroon) and Touboro (Chad), a site far from its bases, MénardSoltraitement set an amazing record for speed last spring. Active six days out of seven, and in double shifts fromthe 10th of May to the end of June, the single team sent to consolidate the compressible zones (before initiationof earthworks) installed 27,000 verticaldrains for a total of 360,000 ml.This was the equivalent of a dailyaverage of 12,000 ml compared with4,000 ml achieved by teams in single shift.

FREYSSINET - 1 bis, rue du Petit-Clamart - 78140 Vélizy-Villacoublay - France - Phone: (+33 1) 46 01 84 84 - Fax: (+33 1) 46 01 85 85 - www.freyssinet.comPublication manager: Claude Lascols - Editor: Stéphane Tourneur ([email protected]) - Contributed to this issue: Isabelle Angot, Krzysztof Berger, Jean-Luc Bringer, Laure Céleste, Stéphane Cognon, Khalil Doghri, Alberto Gonzales Bueno, Dion Gray, Michelle Haynes, Dominique Jullienne, Likhasit Kittisatra, Patrick Ladret,Salvador Lorente, Paul Mc Barron, Anna Marjanska, Tony Mitchell, Sylviane Mullenberg, Patrick Nagle, Don Palmer-Asbey, Manuel Peltier, François Prongué, Pierre Sery, Alain Tigoulet, Faustino Valero - Editorial secretariat: Jean-Marc Brujaille - Layout: Idé - Photos: Daniel Jamme Camara Millau, Jose Angel Murillo, JF Saborit, StT, FrancisVigouroux, Freyssinet and subsidiaries photo libraries - Front cover: Rion-Antirion bridge in Greece (Francis Vigouroux). ISSN: n°1763-0142.

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