Background/FAQ/Tutorial

Background Information:
The official name of the Rion-Antirion bridge is the “Harilaos Trikoupis Bridge”, in honour of Harilaos Trikoupis, a 19th century Greek prime minister who was the first to suggest the idea of building a bridge between Rion and Antirion. The crossing is a 2252m long and 27.20m [1] wide cable stayed bridge with a suspended deck making it the world’s second longest cable stay bridge behind the Millau Viaduct. The bridge connects the Peloponnese to mainland Greece replacing a ferry crossing and so speeding up travel time from 45 minutes to an impressive 5 minutes. The Rion-Antirion bridge is has two lanes of traffic travelling in both directions, one emergency lane and access for pedestrians and cyclist. It currently has about 10,000 vehicles crossing over the bridge every day. The bridge was designed in 1992 by French consortium led by Vinci and Berdj Mikaelian as the lead architect, with construction starting in 1998 and was completed ahead of schedule in time for the Olympic torch to be carried across for the Athens Olympics in 2004 under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) scheme costing 750 million Euros. There were several difficulties the bridge had to overcome caused by the geology of region. The bridge spans across a tectonic plate boundary, so has to be able to withstand potential movements between piers of up to 2.5m [2] as well as earthquakes. In addition to this the soil quality is very poor, 80m of alluvial material with 60m of water above it.

[3] Night View of Rion Antirrion

FAQ:

What are changes that you plan on making to the design of the bridge?

We have been planning on building a more efficient design to the way the bridge detects seismic activity going underneath it. We have come up with an idea that has a seismometer attached to the support system of the bridge that can detect earthquake activity and help lead to a better quicker plan of action.

What are some things the original engineers had to deal with to get the bridge built?

The main things that the engineers dealt with in creating this bridge dealt with the foundation it was constructing on. The loose sediment and sandy area that the foundation blocks were built on were not \very sturdy and could lead to a lot of unwanted movement in the base. Another thing factored into the equation was the high wind area they were in. This lead to a lot of movement with the bridge and they had to keep into account this.

What is your model being constructed of?

We three dimensional printed the pylons as our first material. We plan on either using somewhat bendable plastic or wood to use as the platform for the road inter weaved within these four pylons, and the support and cable system is going to be made out of wire or string materials.   

Tutorial:

These are just a few picture of the designs of the pylons that were made using Creo, John created these:

Top of Pylon

Pylon Base

Full Pylon

References:

[1] Combault,Jacques. 2005. Rion-antirion bridge, Greece - Concept, design, and construction. Structural Engineering Internationa,l Vol. 15, Is. 1, pp. 22-26. 

[2] Hytiris,N. 2001. Rion-Antirion bridge, GreeceMeasuring a moving gap, Proceedings of the ICE - Civil Engineering, Vol. 144, Is. 4, pp. 166-170.

[3]Ice, John T. Rion Antirion Bridge By Night. Digital image. Take Earth Photography. N.p., 28 Nov. 2006. Web. 4 May 2015.