Tough Challenge: Norway's Longest Suspension Bridge Sets Challenges Due to Its Slender Design

The authors present the special challenges posed by the design of the Hardanger Bridge, which, when opened to traffic in 2011, will be Norway's longest suspension bridge--and one of the world's most slender. Special considerations include wind induced vibrations, wind loading, erection procedure optimization, traffic loading's effect on the bridge behaving nonlinearily, suspension cable geometric optimization in sag profile design, and the structure's highly non-linear deformation behavior. RM2006 bridge design software use in the project is discussed.