Why Turkey Built the World’s Longest Suspension Bridge

turkey has a new bridge and it's big we mean really big the world's longest suspension bridge longest suspension bridge in the world has ever seen the bridge lies over the dardanelle straight linking turkeys east and west it's the longest suspension bridge in the world spanning 4.6 kilometers across the dardanelle strait if you put it in london it would dominate the skyline and rise higher than the shard the tallest building in western europe this remarkable feat of engineering quite literally connects europe to asia and crosses one of the most important and busiest trade routes in the world but constructing it wasn't easy and the 2.8 billion megaproject had to withstand earthquakes storms and some politics this is how the world's longest suspension bridge was built on the 18th of march 2022 turkey's president erdogan opened the 1915 shanakale bridge it finished 18 months ahead of schedule but had been a long time coming now the dardanelle straits always been a pretty critical piece of turkey's geography it's a narrow stretch of water that averages just four kilometers wide and it's vital in connecting the mediterranean to the black sea giving some of the most resource-rich countries access to the outside world this strait along with the bosphorus also represents the effective border between europe and asia and before the schnakeley was built there were only three bridges and two tunnels linking the continents at this point all located in istanbul as you might imagine that caused plenty of congestion and the crossing over the dardanelles to solve the problem was first pitched way back in 1989. famed bridge designer william brown was even commissioned to design a structure following the success of his second bosphorous bridge in istanbul in 1988 but the plans stalled in 1995 the project was declared unfeasible and it was more than two decades before another idea was put forward this time around the funds were secured and engineering technology had progressed by 20 years it was time to make history given the size of some ships using the straits engineers opted for a suspension bridge design suspension bridge technology is more expensive than cape state bridge technology but the biggest cable state bridge in the world has a span of around a little bit more than half of chanakala and you can't go much bigger than that for for this type of span which you have on china due to the the shipping then you end up with a suspension bridge these are huge i mean the vessels sailing through the strait of china are among the biggest vessels in the world two enormous 318 meter high towers were planned on either end of the straight supporting the two kilometer mains band between them the longest of its kind in the world a pair of 59 000 ton casings were submerged some 40 meters below the surface one on the european side and one on the asian side of the water they would act as the tower's waterproof foundations additional steel platforms were then attached so the towers could be mounted above sea level there's a number of high environmental and accidental loads that that we're considering the wind load we are concerned for aerodynamic stability and we're of course concerned with earthquake we are concerned with with the ship impact nodes but also a very special consideration for such a bridge here is to be able to handle the traffic loads but of course windows the first and primary concern for such a long suspension bridge is aerodynamic stability the turkish government wanted the bridge to be opened in time for the country's centennial in 2023 and that put a strict deadline on every element of construction the pre-fabrication requirement was primarily coming out of a request for fast construction time we've had a very tight construction schedule for this bridge being one of the challenges so actually it is today it's not even five years since we we started on on this project once the towers were finished the cables between them were then strung strand by strand in a process that took more than 162 000 kilometers worth of wire that's enough to loop around the globe four times the main deck was then suspended from the cables an incredible 72 meters clear of the water the strait is notorious for strong winds and large annual storms so the deck was built with a twin box girder structure with a 9 metre gap in between that helps wind to pass through the bridge more easily and improves its stability so you have what we call a twin box we split the box into we have a gap in the middle and then they're transversely connected with cross beams that works much better and gives much better aerodynamic stability now complete some 45 000 vehicles are expected to cross the bridge every day it's transformed a ferry journey that at its worst could take upwards of five hours to a mere six minute drive and despite its 2.8 billion dollar cost the crossings projected to add 5.7 billion to the economy it's actually all part of a wider infrastructure blitz that president erdogan has spearheaded across the nation including a new airport in istanbul rail and road tunnels beneath the bosphorus and most ambitiously of all a proposed 15 billion canal in istanbul that would effectively turn the city into an island canal istanbul is a 45 kilometer waterway running parallel to the boss for a straight connecting the black sea to the mediterranean but many say the multi-billion dollar project is far too costly given turkey's economic struggles it's fair to say erdogan's had his share of criticism for these infrastructure plans opposition leaders call the mega projects nothing but distractions ahead of the country's 2023 election we are against it because it threatens istanbul completely its water its nature its security and earthquake safety it threatens life in this city as if its record-breaking engineering weren't enough there's actually more to the 1915 chennai bridge than ridiculous amounts of steel and a big span firstly the whole project is wrapped up in national symbolism painted in the colours of the turkish flag its 2023 meter mid-span is an allusion to the turkish republic's 100th anniversary in 2023 and the name of the bridge refers to a world war one battle fought on this very site but it's the contrast with war that's perhaps its most impressive trait the bridge was assembled by an international team from all corners of the globe cranes were shipped from australia designs were drawn up in denmark and finance came from south korea all to build a bridge in turkey that connects asia and europe a hundred years ago many of these countries were at war with each other fighting on the very shores that the bridge is now built on the 1915 battle of gallipoli which the bridge commemorates is one seared into the histories of both turkey and australia the world's new longest suspension bridge is a testament not just to engineering but to what can be accomplished when nations combine their talents at a time of such uncertainty and conflict this structure reminds us not just of the power of construction but of what we can achieve on this planet when we work together if you enjoyed this video and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction make sure you subscribe to the b1m you

Channel: The B1M

Views: 982,937

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, world’s longest suspension bridge, suspension bridge, 1915Çanakkale Bridge, Çanakkale, Dardanelles, shard, Erdoğan, Bospherous, europe, asia, turkey, William Brown, bill brown, Second Bosphorus Bridge, istanbul, caissons, Gallipoli, Denmark, COWI, world war one, ww1, cable stayed bridge, bridge design

Id: BzrdNIsGVc0

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Wed May 11 2022