Session 1 Big projects and innovative structures

RAMA VIII BRIDGE IN BANGKOK: STAY CABLE SYSTEM AND

INSTALLATION
Roy LENGWEILER George CASSIMATIS
Stay Cable Division Research & Development
Project Manager JV -BBR Senior Structural Engineer
BBR Systems Ltd. BBR Systems Ltd.
Switzerland Switzerland

SUMMARY
The recently completed Rama VIII Cable Stayed Bridge with its 300m main-span is among the
world’s largest single pylon, asymmetric cable-stayed structure. The highly stressed stay cables are
one of the key structural elements and are certainly the most delicate. At the same time, they are the
most exposed to climatic conditions such as temperature, wind and rain and, by nature, the least
accessible of all the elements. During the free cantilever erection of the deck structure the installation
of stays is closely interfacing with each single step of the deck erection. Therefore, all these
requirements have to be accounted for in the stay cable technology. Optimized assembly and
installation methods are the deciding parameters with regard to achieved quality and have to be in
perfect coordination with the deck erection method and in line with the progress expectations and the
overall project scheduling targets.
The paper describes the stay cable system used on Rama VIII Bridge and presents the
successfully applied working methods for the assembly, installation and stressing. The installation of
the stay cables was carried out strand by strand. An innovative single strand stressing method was
applied for tensioning the strands, ensuring that all the strands are stressed to identical force. The
vibration problem caused by wind-rain and parametric excitations is addressed by equipping the stay
cables with state of the art damping devices. The elastomeric dampers had been subjected to tests in
the laboratory as well as under site conditions and the results are herein presented.

Keywords: stay cable system, full scale testing, deck erection sequence, installation and tensioning
of cable stays, anti-vibration damping devices

1. INTRODUCTION
The Rama VIII Cable Stayed bridge is the most recent crossing over the Chao Praya River into
Central Bangkok and was needed to alleviate the daily traffic congestion at the nearby Pinklao bridge,
which was to date narrowing the 10 lanes of traffic on the Thonburi side to 6 lanes. The project was
initiated on His Majesty the King’s initiative in commemoration of his elder brother.

Figure 1 : View of the Completed Bridge

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 Proceedings of the 1st fib Congress

The structure of the cable stayed main bridge and the associated viaducts is being constructed
under a design-build contract between the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the contractors.
Despite the recent economic slowdown which Thailand experienced, the project was awarded in 1998
to the CSCEC-PPD-BBR Joint Venture. The Rama VIII bridge project was constructed within 3 years
and was opened to traffic at the end of March 2002.
The key element of the project is the 475m long cable stayed bridge which is crossing the Chao
Praya River with a 300m main span. The longitudinal arrangement is asymmetric and with only one
single pylon, which is located on the river bank at Thonburi side, hence placing the bridge into the
group of the longest single pylon cable stayed structures which have been realized to date.

2. GENERAL PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The 300m main span is supported by means of 28 pairs of stay cables in a semi fan configuration,
which are anchored in the single 160m tall tower. The tower is stayed back to the anchor-span by 28
cables in a vertical centre plane and arranged in harp configuration.

Figure 2: General Arrangement

The 29m wide deck is a hybrid structure, which utilises a composite steel concrete deck for the
main-span, and a multiple span cast in-situ box girder in the back span. The main span stays are
anchored in the deck edge beams at typical 10m spacings. The back stays are terminated at the deck
level in the longitudinal anchor beam, which is tied down to the anchor span cell structure.

2.1 Tower
The inverted Y shape tower consists of two inclined legs and the pylon, which all have hollow box
cross-sections. The outer dimensions at the top of pylon are 5m by 7.0m and at the junction of the
legs 7.5m by 7.0m, the width in the longitudinal direction being constant with 7.0m. The designer has
chosen a quite untypical anchorage arrangement whereby the anchor span and main span stays are
anchored in the 2.0m thick riverside wall of the pylon. With this design only nominal transverse post-
tensioning is required to resist the moderate bending in the main span wall, whereas the box section
provides the required vertical stiffness for the tall tower.

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Session 1 Big projects and innovative structures

2.2 Deck Structure

The composite main span
consists of a steel grid and a
concrete deck slab. The edge
girders, floor beams and sidewalk
elements form the 10m long steel
grid units, which weigh approx. 50mt
each. The deck slab is composed of
pre-cast deck panels, each weighing
30mt. The panels are interconnected
and connected with the steel grid for
composite action by means of in-situ
stitching concrete along the floor-
and edge-beams. For aerodynamic
and also esthetical reasons the
underside of the main span deck Figures 3 & 4:
section is enclosed by a system of Cross-Section Pylon,
fiber reinforced lightweight panels. Completed Tower
The back spans consist of two
fifty meter cast in place concrete
spans and the anchor span multi-cell
structure, where the back stays are
anchored. The
75m long solid
anchor beam
runs
longitudinally
in the
centerline of
the roadway,
anchoring the
28 back stays.
The anchor
beam is tied
down by post-
tensioning to Figures 5 & 6: Main Span Deck Structure,
the multiple- Back Spans with Anchor Beam
cell caisson,
which is partly filled with ballast, in order to resist the uplifting forces from the stay cables.

2.3 Stay Cable Arrangement

The 28 pairs of main span cable stays
are arranged in semi harp shape, with
each stay consisting of between 15 to 29
nos. of dia. 0.6’’ high strength steel
strands. The lengths vary from 65m up to
325m. The 28 back stays are in a
vertical center plane harp configuration,
with a maximum size of 65 strands for
the largest stay, which is also the longest
back stay with 230m length.

Figure 7: Stay Cable Arrangement

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 Proceedings of the 1st fib Congress

3. STAY CABLE SYSTEM

3.1 Description
The chosen stay cable technology is the BBR Cona Stay, which is a multiple strand system and
most suited for site assembly and strand-by-strand installation. The high-strength 0.6” steel strands
are waxed and coated with a protective and tightly extruded PE layer. Each strand is individually

Figure 8 : Proprietary parallel-strand stay

anchor-head.

installed and secured in the anchor-head by high quality three-piece stay cable wedges. The anchor
head is threaded and equipped with an adjustable lock-nut, both manufactured of quenched and
tempered carbon steel. The lock-nut transfers the stay force to the bearing plate. The so-called guide
pipes consisting of bearing plate and steel pipe accommodate the stay cable anchorages, and are
either pre-installed into the concrete structure or integrated into the steel deck structure respectively.
The proprietary stay cable anchorage is composed of the
anchor-head and anchorage transition. The latter component
bundles the strands into a tight pattern at the exit of the
transition part. This is achieved by having each individual strand
pass through a guide tube. The space between the guide tubes
and the transition is filled with grout. This technology allows
assembly of the anchorage parts off-site in a controlled
environment and to pre-install on-site into the already installed
guide pipes. Between the pylon and deck anchorage all the
strands are running in compact bundle, perfectly parallel within
the encapsulating HDPE stay cable sheath. On Rama VIII the
HDPE sheath has a yellow HDPE layer which was co-extruded
with the black inner HDPE. The stay sheath will remain non-
grouted, which allows
replacement of individual
strands if required during
the service stage of the
bridge. Compared to
other projects small
sheath diameters were
used, which will reduce
the risk of the
undesirable and noisy
Figure 9: Anchorage assembly Figure 10: HDPE stay sheath. sheath vibrations under

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Session 1 Big projects and innovative structures

wind.
The helical ribs on the outer surface of the sheath, in combination with the specially designed
elastomeric dampers in the vicinity of the anchorages, address the wind-rain vibration problem and
eliminate the need for secondary ropes, which was an architectural requirement of the client.

3.2 Corrosion Protection

The stay cables are protected by four barriers against corrosion: Galvanization, wax and tightly
extruded high density polyethylene coating of each individual strand plus the encapsulating HDPE
stay sheath of the entire strand bundle. In the area of the anchorage zone, where the strand coating
is removed to allow the gripping of wedges, special lithium grease is injected at each strand to fill the
space between strand and guide tubes. The anchor head, wedges and strand stick-outs are covered
with a protection cap which is filled with the same aforementioned grease.

3.3 Dedicated Anchorage Test

The full-scale test, which was dedicated to the Rama VIII project, was carried out in accordance
with the ‘PTI Recommendations for Stay Cable Design, Testing and Installation’, dated August 1993,
clause 6 ‘Test Criteria’. The strand specified for the project is seven-wire-strand with a nominal tensile
strength of 1770MPa. The dedicated full-scale test of a 73-strand specimen took place at the CTL
Laboratory in Chicago, with the following parameters:
Upper stress level 45% UTS 797MPa 119.5 kN/strand
Fatigue stress amplitude 160MPa 24.0 kN/strand
Load Cyles / Frequency: 2 Million cycles with 1.0Hz
Acceptance criteria:
• Not more than 2% of the numbers of individual wires may fail, i.e. 2% of 73strands x 7wires = 10
nos.
• No failure shall occur in the anchor material or any component of the anchorage.
• In the subsequent tensile test the specimen shall develop a minimum tensile force equal to 95% of
the guaranteed tensile strength of the cable, i.e. 73strands x 95% of 265.5kN/strand= 18’412kN.

Test Results: The results were extremely satisfactory and above the international standard
requirements for stay cable systems.
Fatigue Test Result: no wire breakage recorded compared to the allowable number of 10
breakages
Ultimate Tensile Test Result: 19’004 kN ( = 98% of UTS) achieved compared to minimum required
of 18’412kN (=95% of UTS). No failure in the anchor material or any of its components was observed.

Figures 11&12: Vertical test setup at CTL. Force-displacement

relationship.

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 Proceedings of the 1st fib Congress

4. STAY CABLE DAMPING DEVICES

4.1 Description
Dampers were installed in all stay cables of the RAMA VIII bridge. These included 2 types:

A. Standard neoprene doughnut type for the main span stays between M1 and M10, as well as for
the back stays A1 to A28, and
B. Specially developed elastomeric dampers for the main span stays between M11 and M28

The length of the respective stay cables varies

from 153m (M11) to 325m (M28). Due to the fact
that the stay cable arrangement for the main span
is, contrary to the back stays, in 2 planes, it was
required to install a total of 72 dampers of the
above mentioned special development. The
elastomeric dampers are made of a steel casing
consisting of two (2) half shells (see view below),
which were bolted around the HDPE pipe of the
stay cable inside the guide pipe both in the pylon
and in the deck anchorage.
The elastomeric damping material, consisting of
slices, was also cut in half shells and placed
between the 2 longitudinal steel webs, thus filling
completely the available free space between
(inner) front and rear flange. Longitudinal pre-
stressing was applied by a movable flange (seen
just behind the fixed front flange) upon which the
ends of the bolts were welded. This was done in
Figure 13: Elastomeric damper assembly.
order to:

a. Compensate possible creep of the elastomeric

material, and
b. Create the maximum possible contact pressure
(in transverse direction) between the
elastomeric material and the inner area of the
guide pipe,

The springs placed between the 2 front flanges

were tightened before the elastomer was placed
around the steel casing. Then the elastomer was
placed between the inner front flange and the rear
flange. The completed assembly was then placed
inside the guide pipe. The next step was to release
the bolts, upon which the stored energy in the
springs was transferred by the inner front flange to
the elastomer, thus compressing it. Due to the Figure 14: Installed elastomeric damper.
reduced longitudinal space, it reacted by deforming
transversally until it made contact with the inner face of the guide pipe. Thus, energy can be dissipated
in the contact area during transverse vibration of the cable.
It was decided to consider the M23 stay cable, with a length of 269m, as typical for calculating the
damping properties. According to the designer’s requirement, taking into account the local project
conditions, the required equivalent viscous damping ratio for this stay cable shall be 0.34%, which
corresponds to a logarithmic damping ratio of 2%.

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Session 1 Big projects and innovative structures

4.2 Laboratory Testing

The above described assembly was successfully fatigue tested by the manufacturer of the
elastomer material for over 2.08 million cycles. Testing was executed in 5 stages, due to the fact that
the testing machine was not available for a continuous operation of 2 million cycles.

Linear Presentation Dissipated Energy versus Cycles

Dissipated Energy [Nm]

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 500000 1000000 1500000 2000000 2500000
Test 1 from 21 - 22.12.00 Test 2 from 08 - 12.02.01 Test 3 from 15 - 19.02.01 Cycles
Test 4 from 02 - 05.03.01 Test 5 from 09 - 12.03.01

Figure 15: Dissipated energy versus cycles.

It was calculated that in order to achieve the above
mentioned damping ratio, a dissipated energy of 34Nm
was necessary. The peaks in the above presentation
indicate the start of each new loading cycle. Noteworthy
is the recovering capacity of the material during periods of
‘rest’, which corresponds very well to the expected
behavior of the stay cable in reality. Under standard
conditions, i.e. constant amplitude and frequency, a high
equivalent viscous damping ratio of 10% was achieved.

4.3 Site Tests

In order to verify the actual performance of the
elastomeric dampers, on-site tests were conducted on
stay cables with the dampers installed.

These tests included:

a. Determination of the stay cable internal damping, i.e,
with no damper installed,
b. With only one damper installed, and finally
c. With both dampers installed at top and bottom.

These tests were undertaken by the EMPA (Swiss

Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research)
and included the installation of 3 pairs of accelerometers
in various positions along the chosen stay cables (lengths
171 m, 269 m and 300 m).
A predetermined vertical deflection, varying between
7.5cm and 20cm was statically induced by means of
hand-operated winches fixed on the deck. The respective
stay cable was suddenly released and the resulting
accelerations were recorded.
The results obtained showed a scatter due to fact that Figure 16: Measurement sensors.
the internal steel strands and the external HDPE pipe
were excited in phase for only a short period of time. Thus, the values obtained for the viscous
damping ratio were in the range of 0.25% to 0.55%.

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 Proceedings of the 1st fib Congress

5. STAY CABLE INSTALLATION

5.1 General Deck Erection Sequence STAGE 1:

1.1 Installation and
The main span was constructed by the free cantilever stressing to final force
method and the erection work was subdivided in typical of Stay A(i+1) at
erection cycles. One erection cycle corresponds to a cantilever anchor span
progress of 10m completed deck section and entails the
installation of one deck segment, one back stay and one pair
of main span stay
cables, which
support the newly
added deck portion.
Each typical cycle
was split into more STAGE 2:
than 30 activities, of 2.1 Main Span : Lifting
which 15 are directly and bolting of steel
related to the stay girder G(i)
cable works. All
these operations are
inseparably
interrelated, either in
strict sequence or as
parallel activities. STAGE 3:
In order to 3.1 Installation of strands of
optimize the cycle main span Stays M(i),
Part 1
duration, the deck (Stop strand installation
erection contractor, when strand force drops
stay cable contractor below 20kN)
and construction
engineer formulated
an optimum
sequence by
maximizing the
number of parallel
operations and
minimizing the STAGE 4:
4.1 Lifting of 4 nos deck panels
number of 4.2 Stays M(i), install strands
sequential activities. Part 2
In addition, there 4.3 Adjust stays M(i) to force
were hold-points in
the cycle related to
day time, such as
the early morning
survey for the global
geometry control
and the late STAGE 5:
afternoon hours for 5.1 Stitching pour between the
placing the in-situ deck panels
stitching concrete. 5.2 Curing of stitching concrete
to 15MPa
Heavy rainfalls 5.3 Adjust Stays M(i) to Final
during the monsoon Length
season had to be
considered as some
Figures 18, 19, 20 & 21, from top: activities could not
be carried out under
- Lifting of girder (Stage 2) rain.
- Install. of main stays (Stage 3) Cooperation and
- Lifting of deck panels (Stage 4) coordination of the
involved parties ⇒ back to stage 1 for cycle (i+1)
- Stitch pour (Stage 5)
allowed for 3 day
Figure 17: Typical deck erection cycle.

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Session 1 Big projects and innovative structures

cycles, which resulted in a cantilever progress of 90m during the peak month. The complete 300m
main span deck with the 84 stay cables was installed in 5 months only.
The attached schematic shows the five main construction stages of a typical deck erection cycle,
and highlights the main operations on the stay cables.

5.2 Installation and Stressing of Stay Cables

The stay cables are site assembled, maximising the local content of materials and employment of
local working force, without compromising the quality of the end product.

INSTALLATION STEPS FOR STAY CABLES:

1) Install pre-assembled anchor bodies into top
and bottom guide pipes.
2) Lift HDPE incl. installation strands with tower
crane. Figure 22: Stay cable installation
3) Insert installation strands into pylon sequence
anchorage and secure by wedges, secure
HDPE to the pylon face.
4) Connect deck winch at bottom of HDPE and
pull towards guide pipe.
5) Insert installation strands into deck anchorage M
11
and secure by wedges. 7
6) Pull installation strand by mono-jack at pylon 6
anchorage. Sag will come out. 5
1
7) Installation and stressing A1
4
strand-by-strand. 3

2 B
1

HWL.

P
L 45 P
L 42 PL 4 1 P
L 40

Figures 23, 24 & 25: Strand pre-cutting, lifting of stay sheath, installed stay pipe

All the strands for a particular stay cable were cut to

identical lengths with an accuracy of 1/10’000 of the total
length. A tolerance limit of less than 4 mm was imposed
on the length difference between individual strands of the
same stay, resulting in a variation of 1/50’000 on a 200m
long strand.
The strand installation into the pre-erected and rather
snug HDPE pipes is carried out strand by strand, utilising
custom made high speed pulling equipment. The strands
are tensioned exactly to predetermined stick-out lengths
using single strand stressing jacks. Experience showed
that with the adopted stressing method the stays could
be tensioned to the exact predicted load. It was further
demonstrated that the strand forces of a particular stay
are within a range of 1.5%, compared to the PTI Figure 26: Strand-by-strand installation

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 Proceedings of the 1st fib Congress

standards which allow up to max. 2.5%. This confirmed that for the strand by strand installation the
stressing to length is accurate and superior to the commonly used method of stressing to equal force
by means of a load cell on a master-strand. The reasons for it had been examined in a theoretical
simulation, which was in agreement with the findings from site.
Despite initial concerns from various parties regarding the stay installation duration, it was proven
that the stay cable activities were never critical for the progress. The erection cycle for a 10m long
deck segment was reduced to 3 days only, which could only be achieved due to the optimized working
methods, custom made temporary works such as pylon platforms, selected equipment, the detailed
co-ordination between the parties and the knowledge/experience available for the management of the
works.

5.3 Final Tuning

The final tuning operation was limited to only 34 numbers of main span stays. Thanks to the close
cooperation during deck erection with the party responsible for the construction analysis and geometry
control, release operations using large multi-strand jacks could be avoided and only positive
adjustments had to be made. Although such equipment with all the accessories were readily available
on site, the accuracy of the single strand tensioning, proven during the erection stage, resulted in the
Engineer’s and Designer’s approval of the Contractor’s request to carry out the final adjustment by
mono-jacks.

6. CONCLUSION

The 300m long main span was

constructed in free cantilever
erection within only 5 months. This
achievement has proven the
suitability of the structural design,
construction methods and chosen
stay cable technology, which has
been adopted for the realization of
the prestigious Rama VIII bridge.
The project is an excellent example
that a carefully evaluated stay
cable system in combination with
the use of advanced methods for
the stay cable installation are
inseparable and essential for a
rapid deck erection progress.

The experience gleaned from

Rama VIII bridge with the very long
stay cables (max. length 325m)
encapsulated in a complete and
small diameter HDPE pipe sheath,
confirms that the proprietary cable
system is particularly suitable for
long span bridges. The
requirements on stay cables with
regard to quality and erection speed
for future record breaking bridges
with 1000m main-spans and above
can be realised with the technology
presented herein.

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