Located on the western part of the new ring road in St. Petersburg, Russia, this bridge consists of two identical cable-stayed structures built side by side. It is the first bridge serving full-day traffic across the river Neva, as the city’s other bridges are of bascule type and open at night.
Due to the tight construction time schedule, the bridge is entirely made in steel. For this project WSP was commissioned to provide wind engineering services. Due to the peculiar type of construction, some of the challenges our experts had to take into consideration were:
- use of steel structures with light weight and small damping
- deck type (geometry)
- aerodynamic coupling due to twin bridge configuration.
During the design, it was identified that steel pylons would be prone to vibration at construction stage, and various vibration mitigation solutions were analysed. Comprehensive structural monitoring system was used at the construction stage. The system was later modified to be used when the bridge was open to the traffic.
Some of the technical advantages for the client in using WSP:
- obtaining static equivalent wind loads early for structural engineering
- correct synthesis of implications of wind tunnel test results and conduction of verification study
- efficient adoption of international design practices.
This project was the first for WSP Wind Engineering in Russia, and has since lead to the request for similar services in other projects with the client.