The Rion-Antirion multispan cable-stayed bridge

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the Rion–Antirion multispan cable-stayed bridge. The design and construction challenges of the Rion–Antirion bridge are strongly related to the environmental conditions such as water depth up to 65 m, absence of a stiff soil seabed, strong seismic activity, and tectonic movements. The main bridge is a multispan cable-stayed bridge, with a continuous composite deck fully suspended from four pylons sitting on shallow foundations on reinforced soil. A nonlinear three-dimensional time-history analysis has been used for the seismic design of the bridge. The deck superstructure is seismically isolated with 20 hydraulic dampers having a nonlinear viscous behavior. The Rion–Antirion bridge project consists of the main bridge that crosses the strait with a total length of 2,252 m, and two approach viaducts of 239 m on the Antirion side and 1,000 m on the Rion side. The design of the bridge is governed by the aerodynamic stability of the deck and the accidental earthquake ultimate-limit-state-load combination that consists of the specified earthquake and 50% of the tectonic movements.