Construction—APAC—Japan—Bridges
Efficiency with DYWIDAG Strand Tendons:
The Gunkai-gawa Bridge on the New Tomei Expressway in Japan
The New Tomei Expressway on Japan’s main island of Honshu connects
Japan’s 3 largest cities with each other. Located between the cities of
Toyota and Okazaki in the Aichi Prefecture, the Gunkai-gawa Bridge also
forms part of this route.
The 740m long, 7 span bridge was built as
a continuous rigid frame box girder using
prestressed reinforced concrete. The bridge is
a rigid frame structure with only two bearings,
thus eliminating the need for complex
intermediate bearings.
The superstructure of the Gunkai-gawa Bridge
was built taking advantage of light weight
concrete construction.
54
For this purpose, high-strength concrete was
used in some parts of the girder in order to
reduce slab and web thicknesses.
Additionally, 650t jacks were used near both
end piers in the hollow box girder in order
to transfer horizontal loads before closing
the girder at the center span. This way, the
bending moment acting on the end piers was
reduced.
This method allows a more compact design of
the end pier foundations, minimizing adverse
environmental impact in the area of the jobsite.
Furthermore, the method was the most
economic approach.
Caisson foundations were constructed for
all bridge piers. In some cases, an angle cut
cylinder earth retaining method was adopted
in order to reduce the excavation area.