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

  • Indeco cuts up New York City’s old Kosciuszko Bridge
    November 23, 2017
    An Indeco ISS 45/90 is proving essential for demolishing the old Kosciuszko Bridge in New York City. New York City’s old 1.9km Kosciuszko Bridge, which crosses Newtown Creek connecting Green Point, Brooklyn with Maspeth, Queens, has been out of service since April. By the end of the year, the polygonal Warren through-truss structure will be no more. To replace the old bridge, in 2009, the New York State Department of Transportation planned the construction of two cable-stayed replacement bridges.
  • ABM expands range of its pre-stressed concrete bridge beams
    July 7, 2016
    ABM reports that investment manufacturing equipment at its UK factory in Nottinghamshire is permitting production of an increased range of larger, heavier bridge components The new facility means that the company can now also manufacture U and W section prestressed concrete bridge beams of up to 120 tonnes. The company said that the additional capability means it can offer customers shorter cycle times, even for the heaviest and most complex beams, and a product of high and consistent quality. The dev
  • India’s longest road tunnel continues apace with Atlas Copco support
    May 20, 2014
    The challenging construction of India’s largest road tunnel is part of a vital US$500 million project aiming to connect the isolated northern state of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the vast and highly populated country. Guy Woodford reports Travelling on National Highway 1A (NH 1A) in northern India should be the dictionary definition of ordeal. The single lane, narrow and winding road crosses some of the steepest, most treacherous terrain on the planet. The arduous route becomes especially difficult t
  • Peri delivers formwork for Fehmarnbelt Tunnel
    July 12, 2023
    The last of the 12 ships delivering Peri’s formwork recently arrived at the tunnel element factory east of Rødbyhavn on Denmark’s Lolland island.