Longest Stay Cable Bridge in South America Links Brazil and Paraguay

Context

A new stay cable bridge was built to cross the Paraná River, which separates Brazil and Paraguay, as part of the East Perimeter (Perimetral Leste) project. Located between the cities of Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil and Presidente Franco, Paraguay, the bridge was designed to reduce traffic on Friendship Bridge, the current main crossing between Brazil and Paraguay, which lies 9km north. Further, the new stay cable bridge will allow heavy goods vehicles to bypass the city center, facilitating freer movement between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, which is just south of the new link.

Work on Integration Bridge – or Ponte da Integração in Portuguese – began in August 2019. Specifically, DYWIDAG was hired to supply and install the stay cable system on the new bridge.

Solution

The completed bridge will have a total number of 116 stay cables, which includes 8 vertical cables, 36 backstays and 72 forestays.

The 2 x 9 pairs of backstays have a harp arrangement and are anchored in two prestressed concrete boxes located near both abutments (measuring 25m by 22.7m by 9.5m, with numerous internal sections filled with concrete and weighing up to 9,350t).

The 36 pairs of forestays have a semi-fan arrangement and support the bridge’s main span, which is made up of two 20m-long initial segments plus 34 x 11.9m-long steel segments consisting of 2.5m high edge girders, four transverse beams and bracing elements, and finally a closing segment.

All the prefabricated elements have been driven by truck from the work site and across the side spans to bespoke launching gantries which lift, transfer, and rotate the sections 90 degrees before lowering them into position so that they can be welded.

DYWIDAG installed the bridge’s strands using synchronized winches, which was the first time this method had been done in Brazil. There are between 13 and 77 strands per parallel multistrand cable. Stressing was completed using DYIWDAG’s ConTen system, and each able is prepared to receive a damper, if necessary..

Integration Bridge, upon its completion in late 2022, will be a total of 760m long and 20m wide at the side spans. It will carry two lanes of traffic (one in each direction), a shoulder, and sidewalk. It will also have the longest main span in South America and is the longest span bridge DYWIDAG has built so to date.