Kano River: Crossing Bridge
Kano River: Crossing Bridge
Kano River: Crossing Bridge
thema
Kano River
Crossing Bridge
The Kano River Crossing Bridge is a reinforced concrete deck, arch Developed in Italy in the 1950s, the lowering construction
bridge under construction in Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan: a bridge method has been used to build the arch bridges, with either
concrete (photo 6) or steel members (photo 7) used for the arch
with a length of 171 m and an arch span of 110 m. Since the Kano members. In Japan, having many steep gorges, this method
River is one of the best-known pristine rivers in Japan, environmen- evolved as an effective method to construct arch bridges with
tal considerations required that piers should not be erected in the spans of about 100 m. The method is not used for completely
steel arch bridges. Also, for larger span, other construction
river. This type of structure was selected based on conditions of
methods such as the suspension support method may be
construction and seismic resistance considerations. adopted because of economic efficiency.
Construction Procedure
Figure 3 illustrates the entire construction procedure. The
Melan’s rigid reinforcement is erected using the lowering
construction method to build the arch. The springing points,
which are the base footings on both ends, are encased in
concrete using falsework after closure of the arch. The form
traveler is mounted above the springing point and the rigid
reinforcement is encased in concrete, one step at a time on both
sides, to complete the arch rib. Thereafter, vertical members 4
6
center of rotation of the base. By loosening the winch cable in
step 2, the rigid reinforcement is lowered by rotation under its
6 Lowering construction using concrete members own weight (photo 8 and 9).
7 Lowering construction using steel members
8 Lowering construction procedure
When the angle of the rigid reinforcement is 18° and the
9 Lowering with the winch
10 3 ton winch tension is about 600 kN, the winch system is replaced with the
11 Lowering jack system jack system. Photo 10 shows step 3 of the lowering construc-
7 8
tion; Photo 11 shows the jack system. The jack system is prestressing steel strands with 19 Ø15.2 mm strands were used
composed of lowering jacks, prestressing tendons, hydraulic for the prestressing tendons to obtain a factor of safety of more
system and control panel. Two lowering jacks were installed at than 2.5 against rupture. Approximately 17 m of prestressing
the rear of the concrete block set on top of the pier and were tendon was launched by the jack system during the lowering
centrally controlled together from a control panel using two operation. A total of 110 strokes were used for launching, with
electric pumps. Prestressing tendons tension was at its 150 mm per stroke.
maximum at 3040 kN immediately before closure. Two
10 11
Central closure
Central closure was carried out after the rigid reinforcement
members on both sides were rotated and lowered to the speci-
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fied height. The central closure spacing was 50 mm. To handle
the gap between bolt hole positions on both sides of the rigid
reinforcement, splice plates were plant fabricated after measur-
ing for the actual hole positions. Immediately after lowering
was completed, the rigid reinforcement on both sides was
connected by temporary splice plates and bolt hole positions
were measured during the night, when temperatures are stable.
Photo 15 shows the central closure; Photo 1 shows the pano-
ramic view after lowering was completed.
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Conclusion
Lowering construction was employed for the steel rigid rein-
forcement of the Kano River Crossing Bridge. Concrete encase-
ment of the arch ribs is currently underway. Figure 19 shows the
conceptual rendering of the completed bridge. Construction of 19
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