Foundations Structure Of The “Dubrovnik Bridge”

The bridge across the long and narrow Rijeka Dubrovačka bay consists of two different superstructure elements. A 147, 4 meter long west viaduct in prestressed concrete is supported by a pier and by an abutment. An adjacent main 334 meter long composite cable-stayed bridge is suspended on a pylon and supported by an abutment. The main span of the bridge is 304 m. The bridge is situated in an area of very high seismic activity. In interaction with bridge span this yields extremely high forces which should be transmitted to the ground. The geomorphological features of the site at the position of supports make the foundation problems even worse. The resulting solution requires rather demanding foundation structure. The paper presents the basic features of the foundation design.