Structural Engineering International

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The First Extradosed Bridge in Slovenia

Viktor Markelj (Structural Eng., Manager) (Lecturer)

To cite this article: Viktor Markelj (Structural Eng., Manager) (Lecturer) (2010) The First
Extradosed Bridge in Slovenia, Structural Engineering International, 20:4, 462-467, DOI:
10.2749/101686610793557645

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 The First Extradosed Bridge in Slovenia
Viktor Markelj, Structural Eng., Manager, PONTING d.o.o. Maribor; Lecturer, Faculty of Civil Engineering,
University of Maribor, Slovenia. Contact: viktor.markelj@ponting.si
Abstract
This paper presents the conceptual
design and technical solutions for the
bridge over the artificial lake of Ptuj
(power plant reservoir on the Drava
River) on the new south main road,
which connects the city of Ptuj with the
Maribor–Zagreb motorway.
The horizontal axis of the 430,0 m long
and 18,0 m wide bridge has a radius of
curvature of R = 460,0 m. The bridge is
designed as an “extrados bridge,” repre-
senting an intermediate form between
girder bridges and cable-stayed bridges.
Structural spans of the bridge are 65 +
100 + 100 + 100 + 65 = 430 m. In the cross
section the bridge is a mono-cellular,
box-shaped, longitudinally prestressed
concrete girder; H = 2,70 m, with classic
prestressing tendons inside and addi-
tional exterior extrados cables over the
low pylons.
The conceptual design won the open
design competition in 2004 and the final
tender design was completed in March
2005. The construction of the innova-
tively designed “extrados bridge” started
in November 2005, and the bridge was
opened for traffic in May 2007.
Keywords: extrados bridge; prestressed
concrete; stay cables; deviator; saddle.
Introduction
In May 2004, the municipality of
Ptuj and Motorway Company in the
Republic of Slovenia announced an
anonymous competition to select the
best design solution for a bridge over
the Drava River near Ptuj, the oldest
city in Slovenia. On the basis of the
winning design, the tender design was
prepared in 2005; later in September
that year, and the construction con-
tract for EUR 8,8 million was signed.
The bridge, named “Puch Bridge” after
the famous Slovenian inventor, was
opened to traffic in May 2007.
Environmental Conditions
and Other Restrictions
The Ptuj Lake is the largest artifi-
cial lake in Slovenia, with a length of
over 5 km, width up to 1,2 km and
depth up to 15 m. At the location of
462 Technical Report
x086.indd 462
the bridge, the lake is 250 m wide and
about 5 m deep. The surrounding ter-
rain is very flat. The main problem was
the lake itself, particularly the shores
that house all the facilities and equip-
ment for the operation of the reservoir
(safety embankments, sealing curtain
and drainage), the sewer pipes on both
sides and the stream beyond the right
bank of the lake.
For specific locations, it was necessary
to take into account the relative vicin-
ity of the old town of Ptuj with its old
castle. This being a site of historical
heritage, very strict restrictions were
imposed in order to preserve the views
of the old city. This limited the height
of structures (in this case, pylons) to a
maximum of 10 m.
The following were other signifi-
cant restrictions and conditions that
affected the technical design of the
bridge:
– severe restrictions on the support
layout due to the slurry wall on the
banks of the lake;
– road geometry with a sharp radius
of curvature of R = 460 m;
– low elevation of the bridge and the
required waterway and shipping
clearance of 4,0 m underneath;
– difficult foundation conditions in
the lake because of the rocky bed
located 20 to 30 m below the water
level;
– other obstacles (existing sewage and
other municipal water ditches and
streams, the existing discharge facil-
ity, sharp crossing of the road with
the left bank of the river);
– two-way carriageway of width
8,10 m and a separate lane of width 2
× 3,10 m for pedestrians and cyclists.
Design Concept
The design concept of the bridge was
the result of a search for the optimal
response to the very difficult condi-
tions for spanning the lake. Owing to
the many restrictions, the bridge con-
cept required large spans, but at the
same time, a relatively shallow struc-
ture was necessary.
The longitudinal disposition with the
spans of 65 + 100 + 100 + 100 + 65 =
Structural Engineering International 4/2010
430 m proved to be the best solution
for bridging the obstacles. There was
no dilemma in arriving at the cross
section: taking into consideration the
road curvature and torsion, bridge
installation and maintenance, a box
girder of maximum feasible height of
2,70 m was selected. The slenderness
ratio L/H = 100 m/2,7 m = 37 was obvi-
ously too large for a normal concrete
continuous girder structure of constant
depth. The usual prestressed concrete
girder with a variable height, con-
structed by the free cantilever method,
would require a girder height of 5,0 to
5,8 m (L/20–L/17) at the support. This
would close the navigation channel
and was not acceptable for this reason.
It was therefore necessary to support
the structure from above, for example,
by cables through the pylon. However,
taking into consideration the cultural
heritage of the region and the need to
protect the view of the city, a restric-
tion of a maximum pylon height of
10 m was imposed on structural ele-
ments located on the upper side of the
carriageway.
The solution to this problem was the
use of a new system in bridge building,
the so-called “extrados” bridge, which
is a kind of intermediate step between
the cable-stayed and the girder bridges.
In this case, the bridge girder could
be more slender than a normal con-
tinuous girder, and the pylon could be
lower than the pylon for cable-stayed
systems.
Structure Description
The bridge length between the expan-
sion joints is 433 m and the total width
is 18,70 m. The static system is a contin-
uous externally prestressed box struc-
ture 2,7 m high, constructed according
to the so-called system of the “extra-
dos” bridge with structural spans of 65
+ 100 + 100 + 100 + 65 = 430 m. In its
entire length, the bridge lies in the cur-
vature R = 460 m (Fig. 1).
The entire structure is continuous with
expansion joints only on abutments.
Two central supports have longitudi-
nally fixed bearings and carry all hori-
zontal loadings, while the transverse
horizontal loadings are carried by all the
28/10/10 11:33 AM
 430

65 100 100 100 65

1 2 3 4 5 6

Channel River Drava lake Stream

3 4
430
2 5
100
100
100 6
1
65
65

3,1+01,80

3,2+01,8
0

3,3+
3,0+

01,8
01,8

0
0

3,3
2,9

+6
+3

6,8
6,8

0
0

Fig. 1: Spans 65 + 100 + 100 + 100 + 65 = 430 m in curvature R = 460 m

supports. Three of the four intermediate
supports are located in the reservoir.
The Substructure and Foundation
The substructure consists of two abut-
ments and four intermediate piers,
three of which are located in the res-
ervoir and one on the shore. All the
supports are on deep foundation with
piles of diameter Φ 1,50 m. Owing to
the low and relatively stiff supports, a
rigid connection between the piers and
the girder is not possible; however, all
the supports have bearings at the top.
Supports 3 and 4 have fixed pot bear-
ings at the top, while supports 1, 2 and
5, 6 have longitudinally movable and
transversally fixed bearings.
The bearings summary is given in
Table 1.
The intermediate piers are relatively
low, 2,4 m thick and about 8 m wide,
of a full cross section and are fixed
into the pile head at the bottom
(Fig. 2).
At the foundation in the lake, the soil
mechanics data had to be taken into
account as well as the execution fea-
sibility, structure maintenance and the
hydraulic consequences. For piers, the
foundation on eight piles of diameter
Φ1,50 m with the oval-shaped “float-
ing” pile head was foreseen in the
design. As the superstructure lies on
a curve, the piles are arranged asym-
metrically so that they are uniformly
loaded under the permanent load (the
intermediate supports are more loaded
on the inner side of the curvature—on
the bearings, the ratio is 58–42%). At
the pile head surface, it was simple
to perform the temporary supporting
during the cantilever construction.

Support in axis Bearing (kN)

Superstructure
Outside curve Inside curve
Abutment1 PNe 6100 PNe 5400
The superstructure consists of three
main elements:
Pier 2 PNe 21 700 PNe 28 200
Pier 3 PN 23 000 PN 28 200 – girder roadway structure;
Pier 4 PN 23 000 PN 28 200 – low pylons;
– inclined cables.
Pier 5 PNe 21 700 PNe 28 200
The roadway structure is a trapezoi-
Abutment 6 PNe 6100 PNe 5400
dal prestressed RC box of structural
PNe—pot bearing movable in longitudinal direction. PN—pot bearing fixed. height 2,70 m (Fig. 3). The web thick-
Table 1: Bridge bearings ness is 0,50 m, the upper slab is 18,16 m

Structural Engineering International 4/2010 Technical Report 463

x086.indd 463 28/10/10 11:33 AM


Drazenci Ptuj
3,0%
3,0%
3,0%
Drava
Fig. 2: Characteristic river pier
0,50 3,10 1,70
Drazenci
3,0%
Fig. 3: Stay cables anchored adjacent to concrete webs (Units: m)
wide and the bottom slab 9,10 m. The
slab thickness varies from 0,22 to 0,50
m. The cantilever is 4,24 m long, at the
fixing point 0,50 m thick and rebar
reinforced. Owing to the flow of com-
pression stresses, the thickness of the
lower slab is enlarged to 0,80 m at the
supports. The structure is made of con-
crete of compressive strength C45/50.
The superstructure is prestressed with
internal bonded tendons (negative in
the cantilever and positive in the span)
464 Technical Report
x086.indd 464
2 7,5 : 1, so that the cables, because of the
Drazenci Ptuj route curvature, do not interfere with
the clearance. The deviators for extra-
dos cables in each pylon are designed
to make possible the replacement of
individual cables. The pylons are ver-
tically prestressed on the tension side
with dywidag bars with Φ = 40 WR
(950/1050 MPa), with 11 bars on the
inner side of the radius, and with 5 bars
on the outer side. Thus the loading due
Drava Water
to the structure curvature is compen-
sated. The strength of the concrete for
the pylons is C45/55.
Gravel
Inclined “Extrados” Cables
Sand/clay In addition to the bonded tendons
(negative and positive) in the girder
Gravel and vertical prestressing bars in short
Sand /clay pylons, there is also the third type of
prestressing element, namely, low
Marl base inclined stays, also known as extrados
cables. To maintain uniformity, all the
extrados cables are of the same bear-
ing capacity and with equal number
(31) of bearing strands with the sec-
tion 150 mm2. The cables are 46 to 88
m long with the stressing force from
3600 to 3800 kN.
Each inclined cable consists of the
18,70
following:
4,05 4,05 1,70 3,10 0,50 – the free length;
– two equal anchorages on the girder
beam;
– deviator or saddle located on the
Ptuj
short pylon (Fig. 4).
Free Length
k.niv.
3,0% 3,0% Extrados cables consist of 31 mono-
strands of 15,7 mm (cross section
150 mm2) in the outer PE protection
2,70
pipe that has been grouted with the
cement mortar.
The composition of the free length of
the inclined cable is as follows:
– Bearing element: seven-wire strand
with nominal diameter of 15,7 mm
and the section 150 mm2 and of
quality 1570/1770 MPa with a very
low relaxation (<2,5% at the stress
and additionally with 2 × 5 pairs of
0,7fu in the 2000 h test);
extrados cables, 31 strands of diam-
– Internal corrosion protection: wire
eter 15,7 mm. They support the box at
galvanizing with zinc, grease protec-
a spacing of 5 m, adjacent to the webs,
tion—in PE 80, protection of mini-
so that the force flows directly into the
mal thickness 1,5 mm (all together
longitudinal load-carrying system and
the so-called monostrand);
represents no problem.
– External protection: protection
The superstructure also includes short pipe of dense polyethylene PE, size
pylons of total height 8,5 m (L/11,8), 180/10,2 mm. The protection pipe is
two on each support. The pylons with of black polyethylene, co-extruded
the cross section 1,20 m/2,80 m are with the external cover in dull white
inclined outwards with an inclination colour RAL 9002, UV-stabilized.
Structural Engineering International 4/2010
28/10/10 11:33 AM

Fig. 4: Short pylons with saddles and vertical prestressing bars
550/5
50
550
550
Fig. 5: Stay-cable anchorage system (Units: mm)
φ323,6
φ193,7
PEHD
φ180
Fig. 6: The saddle consisting of two bent steel tubes (Units: mm)
After construction, the space bet-
ween the monostrands and external
PE cover was grouted with cement
mortar to achieve an additional
mechanical resistance and prevent
water condensation in the pipe.
Anchorage
Each inclined stay has two anchorages
into the girder structure. The typical
anchorage VT 31-150 SK has been
used with a minor modification at the
external head protection (Fig. 5).
Structural Engineering International 4/2010
x086.indd 465
φ355,6
φ180
6260
2200
φ193,7
φ323,6
φ180
PEHD
The anchorage and system have been
used and verified on numerous bridges
with inclined stays, having more strict
requirements than those with extra-
dos cables. In addition, dynamic tests
of the entire anchorage for s k = 0,45fu,
Δs = 200 MPa and 2 × 106 cycles were
carried out.
As the system used had additional
modifications (galvanized wires) espe-
cially for the bridge over the Drava
River, two additional tests were per-
formed, with positive results:
– static test on individual strands;
– dynamic test on individual strands
according to fib recommendations
for extrados cables, which means the
stress modification Δs = 140 MPa
with s k = 0,55fu and in 2 × 106 load-
ing cycles.
The durability of the inclined stays
anchorages is assured by the material
selection and the selected corrosion
protection system. The anchorage head
and the winding nut are made of rust-
resistant alloy, all the other anchorage
elements are hot galvanized. The inner
and upper part of the anchorage and
cable are additionally grouted with
cement mortar; the head, wedges and
strands, making possible subsequent
prestressing, are grouted with greases
in the protection cap.
Saddle
For anchoring and the transition
through the pylon respectively the
so-called deviating saddle or deviator
was used. This solution is being used at
extrados bridges, as the cable-breaking
angle is smaller than in cable-stayed
bridges. In this case, the curvature
radius of 4,60 m for a length of about
2,2 m was used.
The deviator consists of two bent steel
pipes, namely, of the external pipe
(Φ = 323,6/7,1 mm) and the internal
deviator pipe (Φ = 193,7/5,6 mm).
Within the deviating pipes, the course
of the settled parallel strands was
achieved with PE spacers, assuring dis-
tance between individual strands and
the pipe. Inside the deviation pipe, the
PE cover and the grease were removed
from the monostrands. The prepared
strands were thereafter grouted with a
fast curing acrylic resin mortar, which
is chemically neutral to the galvanized
wires.
The detail of the deviator is shown
in Fig. 6. The external pipes for the
deviators were inserted in a group
into the pylon with the auxiliary steel
structure, assuring a more exact place-
ment into the inclined pylon, accord-
ing to the shop drawings. Owing to the
horizontal curvature of the road and
the vertical curvature of the elevation,
each deviator in the pylon has its own
position.
Construction
The bridge erection, lasting from
October 2005 till May 2007, was a very
Technical Report 465
28/10/10 11:34 AM
 demanding task. The foundation in
the lake was carried out with artificial
islands that were built with the help of
steel sheet piles. This was followed by
deep foundation with piles of diame-
ter Φ 1,50 m and of length 25 to 30 m,
reaching the marl base. The transpor-
tation of equipment and material on
the lake was carried out through heavy
barges.
The bridge deck was built by the bal-
anced cantilever method with the help
of inclined extrados cables. Movable
scaffolding with segment length of 5 m
was used for erection. Since the super-
Fig. 7: The balanced cantilever construction with the help of “extrados cables”
structure is of a constant height, the
scaffold was not modified as for the
usual variable height girders. The set-
ting and prestressing of stay cables was
performed. Doing this saved time, con-
sequently reducing the duration of a
single construction stage to one week,
which is normal.
One of the particularities of the
construction was the “extrados
cables”, which were assembled near
the bridge and then mounted as a
whole through saddles in the pylon
Fig. 8: Bridge construction to anchorages (Fig. 7). Prestressing
was performed with mono jacks from
both sides, using the strand-by-strand
method.
The stressing protocol ensured that
each strand in the stay cable was ten-
sioned with the same force at the end
of the tensioning procedure. Cables
have an ultimate load capacity of 8200
kN; in service stage being loaded with
approximately 4000 kN.
Very complex was also the monitor-
Fig. 9: Completed bridge ing of deformations in construction
stages, due to the flexible cantile-
vered deck of the bridge (Figs. 8-11).
The construction of such a bridge
would not have been possible without
the most modern software solutions
in the field of cable-stayed bridges
and the most accurate surveying
equipment.

Conclusion
The solution employing the so
called “extradosed bridge” system
managed to ingeniously overcome
numerous restrictions and difficul-
ties imposed on the Drava River
spanning. The sharp curvature, which
confronted design and building with
a very challenging task, was success-
fully carried out by using some new
design solutions and original struc-
Fig. 10: Bridge over the Drava River at Ptuj, Slovenia tural details.

466 Technical Report Structural Engineering International 4/2010

x086.indd 466 28/10/10 11:34 AM

 SEI Data Block

Owner:
DARS, d.d., Motorway Company,
Celje, Slovenia
Structural design:
PONTING, d.o.o., Maribor, Slovenia
Contractors:
SCT, d.d., Ljubljana, Slovenia
Porr AG, Wien, Austria
Bridge type: Concrete extrados bridge
Bridge size: L = 433 m,
W = 18,70 m, A = 8097 m2
Concrete (m3): 9488
Reinforced steel (t): 1300
High quality steel
for cables (kg): 189 900
Fig. 11: Night view of the heritage town and its new bridge
High quality steel
The bridge provided the city of Ptuj cultural heritage; moreover, it has for stays (kg): 99 060
a solution for their traffic problems the potential to become a new archi- Total cost (EUR million): 8,8
and a unique engineering structure. tectural landmark and symbol for the Service date: May 2007
In addition to that, the bridge does modern city of Ptuj on its southern
not compete with the city’s urban border.

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