Messina Strait Bridge, Italy

0233-1702-076e-06b

The Messina Strait Bridge will connect the coasts of Sicilia and Calabria
in southern Italy. It will carry a four
lane highway with emergency lanes
and a dual railway line. The bridge is
a suspension bridge with a world
record breaking 3,300 m main span.
The design life of the bridge is 200
years.
The suspended deck is arranged
with the cross girders spaced at 30
m as the main elements whereas the
two roadway girders and the central
railway girder are taken as secondary
elements spanning between the
cross girders. Thereby the Messina
Strait Bridge will be the rst bridge in
the World to adopt the triple box
concept for the deck.
The main cables consist of twin cables spaced 1.75 m - i.e. a total of
four cables are required for the
bridge. The sag to span ratio of the
cables is xed to 1:11.
The towers are frame structures
with slightly inclined legs (inclination

of approx. 2) and four connecting

cross beams. They are constructed in
steel. The tower top level is at 382.6
m.
COWIs services included investigations at the pre-bid stage in order to
evaluate possible savings. During the
tender stage COWI was responsible
for carrying out a complete tender
design of the bridge structure including mechanical, electrical and railway
installations and LCC studies. As part
of the tender design a global 3D
analysis model of the bridge structure
was established using COWIs inhouse developed program IBDAS.
The analyses included static as well
as dynamic analyses - e.g. dynamic
wind analyses, seismic analyses by
spectral response spectrum and seismic time histories, accidental actions
like rupture of a hanger and comfort
analyses for train passengers.
The design & build contract was
awarded to ATI Impregilo end of
2005.

Services
Pre-bid Investigations
Tender Design

Project period: 2003 - 2005

Client: ATI Impregilo