The New Arch Bridge in the City of Sibiu, Romania

A new bridge was required in the city of Sibiu, to ensure the crossing of Cibin River, in Sibiu, in the Cibin square, due to the fact that the old bridge, with only two traffic lanes, was having both a weight and height restriction and was also strangling the traffic in the area. The streets connected by the bridge are all with four lanes.This paper presents aspects regarding the design and the erection of the new bridge. The new bridge, designed with four vehicle lanes and two lateral pedestrian and cyclist lanes, is an arch bridge with arches having a circular cross-section section Ø508x40mm. The main arches are connected to two secondary inclined arches in order to prevent their lateral buckling. The span of the arches is 34.0 m and their rise 8.1m.The curvature of the arches was achieved by hot bending of the sections, through the electromagnetic induction phenomenon, at a factory from the field of extractive industry from another Romanian city, Ploiesti.The bridge deck is a composite structure consisting in cross girders and a reinforced slab. The slab loading is transmitted to the main arches through hangers made from solid circular steel bars of steel S460M.Some special issues that arisen during the design and execution of the bridge are addressed: prevention of the lateral buckling phenomenon and the adjustment of the execution of the steel deck to actual manufacturing conditions.