Skip to main content

Brazilian bridge to the beach

The State of Pernambuco in north-eastern Brazil has some of the country's most beautiful beaches, and on the peninsula of Cabo de Santo Agostinho a luxury resort has sprung up with apartments (condominios) and hotels for international tourists. To give the resort a convenient, fast link to the coastal highway, the Via Parque consortium is building a bridge over the Jaboatão River, which separates the peninsula from the mainland.
March 1, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
An impression of how the bridge will look
The State of Pernambuco in north-eastern Brazil has some of the country's most beautiful beaches, and on the peninsula of Cabo de Santo Agostinho a luxury resort has sprung up with apartments (condominios) and hotels for international tourists.

To give the resort a convenient, fast link to the coastal highway, the Via Parque consortium is building a bridge over the Jaboatão River, which separates the peninsula from the mainland.

The 320m long Ponte do Paiva across the river has a clear span of 290m, and is part of a new road system that will cut the journey from the airport to the peninsula from 48km to 14km. It will have two traffic lanes and a pedestrian and cycle lane.

The reinforced concrete box girder is being constructed using the cantilever method, working outward from the two pier heads and back-stayed in every casting section. Via Parque opted for 203 Doka Brasil to supply the formwork, and it planned and supplied a custom formwork solution that was optimally tailored to the specific requirements.

The four cantilevered forming carriages were fitted with a total of 1,000m² of large-area formwork Top 50. The formwork solution called for particular flexibility in the seventh casting section, which at 5m in length is twice as long as a typical section. Using stacking plates and 1.8m long formwork beams, it was possible to lengthen the formwork to the desired dimensions swiftly and safely.

A Doka field service technician coordinated the job of erecting the formwork solution correctly, and was on hand to assist the site team with advice and practical help throughout the start-up phase.

Although the crane had not been erected, forming operations on the foundations of the pier heads had to be started, and Doka Brasil supplied the site with the lightweight, rugged framed formwork Frami. Its low weight means that it can be shifted by hand.

"Even without crane assistance, some very good forming times were achieved with it on the site. Thanks to the logically coordinated panel formats, the crew was able to form the foundations with a minimum of prior planning," said Doka.

The site crew also used Frami on the pier-head itself.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Brazilian project attracts strong interest
    April 30, 2012
    Interest is strong in Brazil’s BR-101 highway project. The tender for the project will open on 18th January 2012. According to Brazil's Land Transport Agency (ANTT), at least six groups, most Brazilian, have shown interest in the project. The stretch to be put out to tender totals 476km, of which 458km is in Espirito Santo. The ANTT states that US$1.24 billion will be invested in the BR-101, with plans to widen the highway in stages. The concession period for the road totals 25 years and the highway will fe
  • Wirtgen fleet helps build Romanian road
    December 17, 2013
    A fleet of Wirtgen machines is helping build a section of a major highway in Romania, the Transylvanian Autostrada A3. This 588km road connects Romanian capital Bucharest with the Hungarian border and links to the Hungarian M4 highway. Plans for the A3 got the go-ahead in 2004 and the route runs via Ploieti, Braov, Sighioara, Târgu Mure, Cluj-Napoca, Zalau and Oradea to the Hungarian border, with completion scheduled for 2017.
  • EC530E and EC550E – the 50-ton excavators with ideas above their size class
    October 1, 2021
    All-new machines are also a new size class for Volvo CE, offering a 25% boost in fuel efficiency and a range of advanced features to also deliver a 20% boost in productivity
  • Warm asphalt - emission and energy saving
    February 28, 2012
    Warm mix asphalt is said to offer many benefits including fewer emissions and energy savings, but further research is needed to "validate its expected performance and added value" claims one organisation. Patrick Smith reports