Doka puts the ‘Y’ in Turkey

The 600m cable-stayed Kömürhan Bridge rises around 165m over eastern Turkey’s Karakaya Dam Lake and is part of the Malatya-Elazig State Highway. The bridge is the fourth single-pylon cable-stayed bridge in the world and is due to open in July.
July 8, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Doka Turkey saw its main challenge as being the Kömürhan Bridge’s pylon

It is part of a 5.2km four-lane highway that includes a 120m viaduct and a 2.4km tunnel, providing passage to the Karakaya Dam a few kilometres to the south. The bridge is being built beside an existing bridge that will, along with the its curved roads, remain open.

Standing at 168.5m, the ‘Y’ shaped reinforced concrete tower is the centrepiece of the bridge across the Fırat River. The deck cross-section will be orthotropic steel while the superstructure will be connected to the pylon with 42 cables.

Doka Turkey, which is working for the Doğuş and Gülsan joint venture main contractor, saw its main challenge as being the pylon, given its unusual shape. Doka’s Automatic Climbing Formwork SKE 50 was used on the upper single core column of the pylon, while a specially adapted double set was used on the lower half with bespoke solutions created at junction points to maintain the highest standards of quality and safety.

Large-area formwork Top 50 was used for the pylon with Doka D2/D3 and Load-bearing Towers Staxo 100 shoring systems for the approaching viaduct. While a tower and mobile crane were used for the pylon and viaduct respectively, the formwork solution was otherwise self-sufficient and delivered its portion of the project safely, on time and on budget.

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