Preparations for assembling of the bridge arches begin at the Kerch Strait construction site, says press center of FSI Uprdor “Taman”.
As of today, arch spans of the bridge, those of the highway and the railway sections, have been half assembled. Almost 5,500 t of 10,000 t of units have been pre-assembled. Those structures will bear the road/rail ways. The next phase is the erection of arch structures.
“We have assembled the lower parts of the arches, so called ties, - says Dmitri Kondakov, Deputy Director General of SGM-Most. – It is the first phase of assembling. We are gradually coming to the next one: the arch structures will be built up on the lower parts. Each arch will have a maximum rise of 45 metres.
Over 500 engineers and workers are currently involved in the assembling works. They secure the assembling with high strength bolts and welding. Over 200,000 of bolts have already been used and 4 km of first category butt weld done. The butt weld quality is checked by ultrasonic method.
According to Victor Galas, Deputy Director for Engineering, Institute Giprostroymost – Saint-Petersburg CJSC, the combined system applied for the construction ensures the reliability of the bridge.
Design wind speed across the channel at the level of the road/rail way is as high as 40 m/s. Basing on the findings of the research conducted to prevent negative aerodynamic action the designers opted for a certain fairing configuration allowing for minimization of wind load.
The spans will be fitted with ship warning lights and air navigation signal lights.
Assembling of the arches began in summer 2016. By the end of summer 2017 the structures are supposed to be ready for placement on the floating system, transportation by water and installation above the channel of the Kerch Strait. The arch spans will be 35 metres above the sea to ensure the passage of vessels under the bridge.
The floating system will be built by Sevastopol Shipyard.
Construction of the Kerch Bridge is carried out simultaneously at 8 sites. Piling works have been completed at more than 50% of the project (over 3,900 piles). All in all, there will be 7,000 piles and 595 support structures. 236 support structure have been completed with the work on more than 150 support structures underway. Assembling of spans is also in progress: some 21,000 t of metal structures have been assembled. All in all the bridge will consist of more than 220,000 t of metal structures (excluding those of the ach spans). Totally, more than 4,000 engineers and workers, some 200 units of equipment and over 30 floating facilities are involved in the construction process.
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