Euripus Bridge

Euripus Bridge is a 395-metre-long (1,296 ft) cable-stayed bridge located in Chalcis that crosses the Euripus Strait, the central and narrowest part of the channel separating the island of Euboea from the Greek mainland. Built in 1992, the bridge was the first cable-stayed road bridge in Greece. A technical challenge during the design and the construction phase was the extremely slender (L/480) longitudinally and transversally pre-stressed concrete deck with only 45 centimetres (18 in) constant thickness, providing sufficient stiffness to omit longitudinal girders. The multi-strand stay-cables therefore have a closer spacing of approximately 5 metres (16 ft) with a minimum inclination of 23 degrees (0.4 rad) and were directly used to support the free cantilever form-works during deck construction. For purpose of higher seismic performance, the concrete deck is monolithically connected with the towers. Constrained reaction due to temperature rise can be handled well due to the slender towers and the soft superstructure. At the transition piers at the bridge ends hinged tension pendulum members are used to transfer uplift forces into the substructure.