Engineering Connections Earthquake Proof Bridge | Science Documentary |

Reel Truth Science

The Rion-Antirion Bridge is situated in gulf of Corinth, connecting Rion and Antirion on
mainland Greece. This bridge spans 2,280 meters and it is practically “earthquake proof”.
The Rion-Antirion Bridge lies on the most active seismic zones in Europe. In the gulf of
Corinth in Greece, the sea is 65 meters deep and then sand and silt for hundreds of
meters down. No solid bedrock means no solid foundation. Additionally, when an
earthquake strikes on a wet and sandy soil, the sand will liquify. Moreover, building a
bridge on this condition is very difficult. Furthermore, the engineers’ solution is to adapt
the properties of a Vetiver grass. The roots of vetiver grass help stabilize soil and river banks
across the world. Therefore, beneath the 3 of the 4 piers of the bridge are 200 metal piles
driven into the sand. Each pile is at least 25 meters long and it still doesn’t reach the
bedrock. However, it keeps the sand in liquidizing during an earthquake and the bridge
don’t sink. The piers are about 30 storeys and during an earthquake, it needs to move
freely. Another concept they used is sliding. The piers need to move freely in the sand but
they don’t slide well in sand because of their shape. One solution is to make the bottom
of the pier to curl up but is virtually impossible to construct. Instead of changing the shape
of the pier, they decided to change the properties of the seabed. The solution is the
particle size. So, they put gravel in top of the sand to make the piers move freely in times
of earthquake. The purpose of the pier is to hold the deck of the bridge. During an
earthquake, it is safe to say that the bridge has many vehicles passing through.
Additionally, to reduce the shaking of the deck. Moreover, they needed to build the deck
in a way that It allow to move freely from the pier. Engineers adapt the concept of a
hammock and a pendulum. The deck of the Rion-Antirion bridge is fully suspended. As
an earthquake strikes and the piers started moving, the deck will move freely from the
piers. However, suspending the deck from the bridge is not enough. If the deck moves so
strong, it might it the four pillars above the piers. So, the engineers installed a viscous
damper. Viscous damper is used to soften movement. Moreover, they adapt the
principle of “predictable failure”. Just like a sprinkler, it will trigger if the surrounding
temperature reaches 68 degrees. Adapting the principle on the bridge, they installed a
trigger or a fuse on the viscous damper below the deck of the bridge that will make the
viscous damper work. So, when an earthquake strikes, there is a fuse that is designed to
break at a certain limit and it will cause the viscous damper start to work. Lastly, the
cables are very sensitive to wind just a gust of wind could be dangerous. Thus, a helical
strake is a solution to stabilize and to reduce forces and deflections caused by vortex
shedding. The Rion-Antirion Bridge is truly a marvelous work as it stands on a sand seabed,
and the coast of Rion and Antirion moves away from each other everyday despite that
it is able to withstand the impact of an 180,000-ton tanker moving at 16 knots, it is able to
resist high velocity windstorms, and it is able to face tremendous earthquakes.

Reference: Reel Truth Science Documentaries. (2018). Engineering Connections

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