Skip to main content

Doka’s fine form

Doka’s SKE50 automatic climbing formwork are being used on two suspension towers for a new multi-lane cable-stayed bridge alongside an older viaduct in Zaporozhye, south-east Ukraine. On completion, this large-scale infrastructure project is set to massively reduce the traffic burden on the existing bridge and significantly improve the daily traffic situation at what is a major river crossing. The two separate roadway slabs are cable-stayed off twin H-shaped suspension towers 150metres high. Lead project co
June 18, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
Doka formwork is being used on two suspension towers for the new multi-lane cable-stayed bridge in Zaporozhye, Ukraine
203 Doka’s SKE50 automatic climbing formwork are being used on two suspension towers for a new multi-lane cable-stayed bridge alongside an older viaduct in Zaporozhye, south-east Ukraine.

On completion, this large-scale infrastructure project is set to massively reduce the traffic burden on the existing bridge and significantly improve the daily traffic situation at what is a major river crossing. The two separate roadway slabs are cable-stayed off twin H-shaped suspension towers 150metres high. Lead project contractor Mostobud are said to have chosen Doka for its smooth cooperation on previous builds, topped by what it saw as the firm’s acclaimed competence on technologically challenging automatic climbing projects.

For the sake of strength, the two suspension towers are of solid cross-section to the full height of the first two concreting sections. The section is hollow from the 11metre level up. Per tower leg there are eight SKE50 automatic climbers carrying 100 m² of Doka Top 50 beam formwork, plus a set of Doka shaft formwork, repositioned with a single lift of the crane.

“The Doka formwork has proved the perfect solution for building the two suspension towers quickly and economically,” says project manager Volodymyr Klymenko.

Up to where the cross-beam ties in at the sixth concreting section, the legs of the towers are inclined at an angle of 5.3° off the vertical. Above that beam level, the tower legs are climbed at an angle of 5.6°. The polygonal cross-section tapers 5cms per concreting section. Aggregated over the total of 40 concreting sections, that equates to a difference of 2metres between the first and last sections in the towers’ tapering cross-section.

The hollow-section cross-beam is 6metres high and 20metres long to carry the roadway slab and is formed with Doka Top 50 large area formwork. This formwork is supported at a height of around 25metres by easy-to-use, easily erected Staxo 100 load-bearing towers. The integrated ladderways and a multiplicity of attachment options for personal protective equipment are said to enable the falsework towers to be erected rapidly, yet also in total safety. Starting from the top surface of the cross-beam, the automatic climbing platforms are set to the new angle of 5.6° from the vertical. A catwalk, suspended from the self-climbing system, forms another connecting link between the two legs of the tower. The walkway means that per tower, one passenger hoist is enough to bring the crew to their workplaces. The catwalk is said to be a special solution developed specifically for the build by Doka.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • VST used on Portuguese bridge
    February 17, 2012
    PERI says that its new VST heavy-duty shoring tower serves as load-bearing scaffold for the large bridge and civil engineering projects. Each leg on the VST (VARIOKIT Shoring Tower) system can carry a load of around 600kN (the weight of about 60 VW Golf cars or one Leopard-2 tank), and the extremely flexible modular system can be assembled as segmental sections, towers or shoring tower frames for heights up to 40m.
  • Doka’s stripped-back d3 tower for emerging markets
    April 19, 2016
    In 2015, formwork specialist Doka’s turnover passed the euro1billion mark – and over half of that came from outside Europe. It is perhaps not surprising that it is devoting some of the 200,000 hours a year it spends on R&D to adapting existing products for new global markets. At bauma 2016, Doka is showcasing one such product: the Load-bearing tower d3, aimed at emerging markets. It has designed the d3 for heavy loads, high shoring heights, and many different configurations to provide flexibility. “W
  • Extra work for Ulma on Ireland’s New Ross extradosed bridge
    September 19, 2019
    ULMA has taken part in construction Ireland’s New Ross, the longest extradosed bridge in the world. The €230 million project includes a 14km dual carriageway and a three-tower 900m-long extrados bridge over the Barrow River between Pink Point and Strokestown – to be open in early 2020 – that bypasses the town of New Ross. The extradosed bridge is characterised by its cables set at lower angles, meaning that pylons are shorter in relation to deck span lengths. ULMA was responsible for the transverse s
  • New Angolan bridge offers improved connectivity
    September 30, 2013
    Drivers in Angola are benefiting from a bridge that spans the Catumbela River, taking the place of an old structure that had proven not fit for purpose. The US$35 million cable stayed bridge is located in the highway between Benguela and Lobito, around 7km from Angola’s Atlantic coast and is one of a series of new infrastructure developments in the country. Angola suffered a long period of war that impacted on its people and infrastructure. The war resulted in severe damage to the country’s road system alon