Central and south-east Europe are hotbeds for new highway infrastructure projects utilising cutting-edge formwork solutions, while a number of leading formwork manufacturers are also looking at emergent markets for growth. Guy Woodford reports
Travelling between Hungary’s capital Budapest and Southern Dalmatia now takes less time thanks to the Pan-European Corridor Vc – European route 73. Numerous tunnels and bridges are erected along the 397km stretch of the European route 73 through Bosnia owing to the
Two 75m high, A-shaped pylons carry the three main bridge segments with a total length of 420m. Efficient construction is said to have been ensured by PERI engineers by combining the CB and RCS climbing systems to create a bespoke formwork solution
RSSCentral and south-east Europe are hotbeds for new highway infrastructure projects utilising cutting-edge formwork solutions, while a number of leading formwork manufacturers are also looking at emergent markets for growth. Guy Woodford reports
Travelling between Hungary’s capital Budapest and Southern Dalmatia now takes less time thanks to the Pan-European Corridor Vc – European route 73. Numerous tunnels and bridges are erected along the 397km stretch of the European route 73 through Bosnia owing to the difficult topography. Austrian firm203 Doka's contribution to the infrastructure initiative is a formwork solution including a Total of ten Cantilever forming travellers for the route’s new Studenica and Trebižat bridges.
Altogether European route 73 is about 702km long. The A1 is an important section of this route in Bosnia-Herzegovina connecting the northern border to the Adriatic by way of Zenica – Sarajevo – Mostar. The two bridges, Studenica and Trebižat, are intended to connect the valleys near the municipality of apljina.8004 Hering, subcontractor of 980 OHL, the Spanish construction company, is benefiting from the extended pouring sections of the Doka Cantilever forming traveller that will reduce construction time of the bridges by about eight weeks.
With a stretch of 555m in length from one abutment to the other and maximum height of 81m above the valley, Studenica is the longer and higher of the two bridges, which were both expected to be completed last month (March 2014). Four superstructures, each 12.4m wide and placed at a distance of 120m from the other, are established on a Total of five piers. At a Total length of 365m and 59.5m maximum height, Trebižat, the smaller structure, requires only three piers. Doka developed a safe and fast formwork solution consisting of Cantilever forming travellers. A Total of ten rentable Cantilever forming travellers, eight of them on the Studenica Bridge and two on the Trebižat Bridge, were said to be making for smooth and rapid progress at lofty heights.
High-performing Cantilever forming travellers allow for pouring of 5m segments in a weekly cycle. In the Corridor Vc project, completely identical Forming wagons designed for 250tonnes carry maximum loads of 196.5tonnes. “These extended five metre pouring segments reduce the number of segments and coupling joints and therefore save time and money", says project manager Mario Jurisic.
The suggestion by both the Business Development and Bridge Competence centres to extend the pouring segment to 5m allows completion with eight fewer segments, thanks to the high-performing Cantilever forming travellers. In the case of a weekly cycle, this means the project can be completed eight weeks ahead of time.
By changing the cross slope and tapering the walls of the superstructures each segment was planned individually, eliminating the need to adapt the formwork. Special installation of pieces made-to-measure and a custom solution with reusable removable elements in the interior formwork prevent loss of large quantities of materials.
Doka materials were used for the piers as well. Columns were constructed with the help of the crane-lifted Climbing formwork MF240 and Framed formwork Framax Xlife. With hammerheads, high-performing supporting construction frames were used horizontally. Doka Croatia in cooperation with the Bridge Competence Centre are said to have demonstrated planning precision as well as creativity in order to get the Forming wagons into position at a height of 81m. Parts of a gantry crane placed on the formwork lifted the Cantilever forming traveller's floor grate a bit at a time. The floor piece usually raised by its own winches at the Cantilever forming traveller can only be connected to the formwork once it is on the7304 HammerHead. A Doka Formwork instructor on site ensures correct set-up and optimised use of the materials.
Limited workspace on the hammerheads with dimensions of 8m in length called for a special solution. Whereas the forming wagons weighing approximately 80tonnes start moving symmetrically in two directions with the cantilever forming principle, Doka's structural engineers figured out a fine-grained custom solution for this project. Thanks to the exact calculations, one of the Cantilever forming travellers will first start off from the HammerHead. Then enough space is available for hitching the second traveller to it and offset the balancing act. In order to get around the lifting procedure, the Cantilever forming travellers will return once the width of a span has been completed; they are then repositioned and used again for the next pier.
The Forming wagon is fully equipped with secured platforms, safe Access systems and access to all places on the Forming wagon where work is done. This allows for safe progress even at considerable heights. In addition to fine-grained Formwork planning carried out by the teams at the Bridge and Business Development Competence Centres ahead of time, local engineers aid in the smooth construction progress on site.
The bridge over the Drava river is part of the realisation of the 90km long A5 motorway development in eastern Croatia.298 PERI’s Croatian engineers planned and delivered a cost-effective climbing formwork solution for the construction of the up to 75m high Drava bridge pylons, along with the concept for the creation of the piers and the parapet solution for the foreshore bridges. PERI also provided the two contractors responsible for the project with customised support.
The new 2,500m long Drava river bridge structure has two separate carriageways and consists of one cable-stayed bridge along with directly connected approach bridges. Two A shaped pylons carry the three main sections directly above the river with 100m and 220m spans respectively, whose roadways are being realised using a steel composite construction method. The near 1km long foreshore bridges on both sides are located in the flood area of the Drava river and are being realised with prestressed prefabricated beams on massive circular columns.
Responsible for the construction of the pylons is5438 Viadukt from Zagreb, while Split-based Skladgradnja is realising the superstructure.
The adjacent beam bridges which span the flood area of the River Drava reach a length of around 1km. The sections have regular spans of 35m with six precast beams forming the two 13.5m wide carriageways in each case. The 182cm high prestressed concrete beams are in part produced on-site in a field factory. With the individually designed formwork, consisting primarily of the proven GT 24 formwork girders and SLS spindles, the construction team requires only one working day per structural component. Loads from the bridge segments are transferred via the transverse beams into massive circular columns with 180cm diameters and mushroom shaped enlargements. The special steel formwork from PERI for the columns facilitates rapid concreting and simultaneously ensures the best surface results.
For realising the parapets on the external as well as internal areas of the carriageways, the PERI team developed a number of solutions based on the VARIOKIT engineering construction kit. A cantilevered parapet carriage is being used for the large-sized cantilevered parapets on the outer edges, with dimensions of 80cm x 35cm, which can be moved very quickly. Anchorage to the structure is not necessary as the horizontal forces are transferred by means of friction – this makes the solution very cost-effective and saves on any additional time and effort. The cantilevered parapets on the opposite side located on the inner side of the carriageway are formed using an ingenious combination of system components taken from the VARIOKIT engineering construction kit and the PERI UP modular scaffold: the formwork constructions of both parapets are suspended on a spindle, and the loads are transferred via a laterally arranged RCS rail positioned above the carriageway into the PERI UP shoring towers. By means of simple rollers, this 36m long construction can be quickly moved to the next concreting section in each case.
Two striking, 75m high A pylons with constantly changing cross sections will characterise the cable stayed bridge after completion. They form the suspension for the three bridge segments directly above the river and each carry the 100m long external span as well as 110m of the middle bridge section.
The Trio panel formwork provides the form for the up to 4.5m thick foundations of the four pylon legs while efficiently transferring the fresh concrete loads of the 22m x 22m sub-structure. The rectangular cross-section of the towering pylons is constantly changing – from 6.5m x 3.5m in the base area up to 4m x 5m below the converging pylon head. For the construction of this complex geometry, PERI has combined CB climbing formwork and the RCS rail climbing formwork.
CB 240 climbing formwork complete with formwork carriage is being used on the front sides of the pylons, and a crane moves the units consisting of brackets and VARIO GT 24 girder wall formwork from one concreting section to the next. The brackets are tilted by 8° to the vertical; thus the formwork follows the A shaped inclination of the front sides. For the forward and reversed-inclined outer surfaces of the pylon legs, the rail-guided RCS climbing formwork is said to provide the best solution. By means of mobile hydraulic pumps, the units can continuously climb regardless of the weather and without needing a crane. The climbing rails follow the constantly changing inclination of the pylon legs with angles of 16° on the inside and 18° on the outer side respectively. The fact that the working platforms can be adapted to suit the inclinations and are thus always in a horizontal position guarantees faster and safer working. Formworking operations are also said to have been accelerated as a result of ensuring that during the planning of pre-fabricated VARIO GT 24 wall formwork elements for the 60cm thick pylon walls, only a minimum of modification work was required.
With the help of the overall concept for the pylons, the construction team is able to complete each of the 24 concreting sections within an average of five days.
Positioned at a height of around 8m, the reinforcing cross connection for the two pylon legs is formed using the Multiflex slab and Trio wall formwork systems. PERI UP Rosett Flex shoring towers carry the high loads into the ground. In the upper pylon area where the two legs converge to form a massive head section, a strong lattice framework comprised of components taken from the VARIOKIT engineering construction kit serves as a safe working platform as well as a load-bearing scaffold.
The ‘Autocesta A5’ (Croatian for the A5 motorway), also known as the Slavonika, is a highway in the eastern part of Croatia which is still under construction in part. When construction is finally completed, the A5 will connect the towns of Branjin on the Hungarian border and Svilaj on the Bosnian-Herzegovinian border. Near to Osijek, the motorway crosses the River Drava – with around 750km, it is the fourth-longest tributary of the Danube.
7163 Pilosio reported an impressive turnover increase of 30% in 2013, coinciding with the Italian formwork specialist firm’s key involvement in a number of significant transport infrastructure projects outside its homeland.
The company says its biggest sales market in 2013 was Saudi Arabia, where it is involved in one of the most important construction projects in the world, supplying a huge quantity of its Magnus Plus model vertical formwork, Simplex Table, Linear flooring systems and MP multidirectional structures for the building of three imposing buildings in the northern area of the Al-Haram mosque in the holy city of Mecca.
Pilosio also says it is increasing its presence worldwide through new partnerships and projects in Australia, South Africa, Canada and South America.
Of its most popular formwork solutions in 2013 Luca Drigani, the firm’s external relations manager, says, “The best seller solutions were Magnum Plus and P300 formworks. Magnum is the Ideal solution for construction sites of large sizes and in order to obtain a high level of productivity even under the most difficult conditions. The system is made up of a 240x300cm base or reinforced panel, equal to 7.2m², with only four through-puts for opposing tie-rods and only two connecting blocks.”
Exhibited at688 Bauma 2013, P300 was used last year during the construction of a 560m overpass in Bucharest, Romania. It is said to be based on a 100x300cm base panel with a few simple accessories, such as a quick connection block to allow extremely rapid framework operations, and a varnished frame and surface counter-cast in 18mm thick, high resistance, multi-layered Finnish panels to ensure high number of uses. Spaced every 1.5m², the coupling system is based on a P300 connecting block that ensures speedy assembly and perfect alignment of the formwork.
Dario Roustayan, Pilosio’s CEO, believes the future formwork market will be increasingly focused on high quality engineering service. “The quality of its products has always been Pilosio’s priority throughout its history but now the company has undertaken a step change since simply being suppliers is no longer enough. Making the difference means adapting and anticipating market needs and that’s why we are now able to offer cost-effective and rapid solutions and support for businesses and distributors, effectively becoming major consultants, working not only on the quality of the product but, above all, the service, collaborating with the customer to find the best solution from conception right through to support on the construction site.”RSS
Travelling between Hungary’s capital Budapest and Southern Dalmatia now takes less time thanks to the Pan-European Corridor Vc – European route 73. Numerous tunnels and bridges are erected along the 397km stretch of the European route 73 through Bosnia owing to the difficult topography. Austrian firm
Altogether European route 73 is about 702km long. The A1 is an important section of this route in Bosnia-Herzegovina connecting the northern border to the Adriatic by way of Zenica – Sarajevo – Mostar. The two bridges, Studenica and Trebižat, are intended to connect the valleys near the municipality of apljina.
With a stretch of 555m in length from one abutment to the other and maximum height of 81m above the valley, Studenica is the longer and higher of the two bridges, which were both expected to be completed last month (March 2014). Four superstructures, each 12.4m wide and placed at a distance of 120m from the other, are established on a Total of five piers. At a Total length of 365m and 59.5m maximum height, Trebižat, the smaller structure, requires only three piers. Doka developed a safe and fast formwork solution consisting of Cantilever forming travellers. A Total of ten rentable Cantilever forming travellers, eight of them on the Studenica Bridge and two on the Trebižat Bridge, were said to be making for smooth and rapid progress at lofty heights.
High-performing Cantilever forming travellers allow for pouring of 5m segments in a weekly cycle. In the Corridor Vc project, completely identical Forming wagons designed for 250tonnes carry maximum loads of 196.5tonnes. “These extended five metre pouring segments reduce the number of segments and coupling joints and therefore save time and money", says project manager Mario Jurisic.
The suggestion by both the Business Development and Bridge Competence centres to extend the pouring segment to 5m allows completion with eight fewer segments, thanks to the high-performing Cantilever forming travellers. In the case of a weekly cycle, this means the project can be completed eight weeks ahead of time.
By changing the cross slope and tapering the walls of the superstructures each segment was planned individually, eliminating the need to adapt the formwork. Special installation of pieces made-to-measure and a custom solution with reusable removable elements in the interior formwork prevent loss of large quantities of materials.
Doka materials were used for the piers as well. Columns were constructed with the help of the crane-lifted Climbing formwork MF240 and Framed formwork Framax Xlife. With hammerheads, high-performing supporting construction frames were used horizontally. Doka Croatia in cooperation with the Bridge Competence Centre are said to have demonstrated planning precision as well as creativity in order to get the Forming wagons into position at a height of 81m. Parts of a gantry crane placed on the formwork lifted the Cantilever forming traveller's floor grate a bit at a time. The floor piece usually raised by its own winches at the Cantilever forming traveller can only be connected to the formwork once it is on the
Limited workspace on the hammerheads with dimensions of 8m in length called for a special solution. Whereas the forming wagons weighing approximately 80tonnes start moving symmetrically in two directions with the cantilever forming principle, Doka's structural engineers figured out a fine-grained custom solution for this project. Thanks to the exact calculations, one of the Cantilever forming travellers will first start off from the HammerHead. Then enough space is available for hitching the second traveller to it and offset the balancing act. In order to get around the lifting procedure, the Cantilever forming travellers will return once the width of a span has been completed; they are then repositioned and used again for the next pier.
The Forming wagon is fully equipped with secured platforms, safe Access systems and access to all places on the Forming wagon where work is done. This allows for safe progress even at considerable heights. In addition to fine-grained Formwork planning carried out by the teams at the Bridge and Business Development Competence Centres ahead of time, local engineers aid in the smooth construction progress on site.
The bridge over the Drava river is part of the realisation of the 90km long A5 motorway development in eastern Croatia.
The new 2,500m long Drava river bridge structure has two separate carriageways and consists of one cable-stayed bridge along with directly connected approach bridges. Two A shaped pylons carry the three main sections directly above the river with 100m and 220m spans respectively, whose roadways are being realised using a steel composite construction method. The near 1km long foreshore bridges on both sides are located in the flood area of the Drava river and are being realised with prestressed prefabricated beams on massive circular columns.
Responsible for the construction of the pylons is
The adjacent beam bridges which span the flood area of the River Drava reach a length of around 1km. The sections have regular spans of 35m with six precast beams forming the two 13.5m wide carriageways in each case. The 182cm high prestressed concrete beams are in part produced on-site in a field factory. With the individually designed formwork, consisting primarily of the proven GT 24 formwork girders and SLS spindles, the construction team requires only one working day per structural component. Loads from the bridge segments are transferred via the transverse beams into massive circular columns with 180cm diameters and mushroom shaped enlargements. The special steel formwork from PERI for the columns facilitates rapid concreting and simultaneously ensures the best surface results.
For realising the parapets on the external as well as internal areas of the carriageways, the PERI team developed a number of solutions based on the VARIOKIT engineering construction kit. A cantilevered parapet carriage is being used for the large-sized cantilevered parapets on the outer edges, with dimensions of 80cm x 35cm, which can be moved very quickly. Anchorage to the structure is not necessary as the horizontal forces are transferred by means of friction – this makes the solution very cost-effective and saves on any additional time and effort. The cantilevered parapets on the opposite side located on the inner side of the carriageway are formed using an ingenious combination of system components taken from the VARIOKIT engineering construction kit and the PERI UP modular scaffold: the formwork constructions of both parapets are suspended on a spindle, and the loads are transferred via a laterally arranged RCS rail positioned above the carriageway into the PERI UP shoring towers. By means of simple rollers, this 36m long construction can be quickly moved to the next concreting section in each case.
Two striking, 75m high A pylons with constantly changing cross sections will characterise the cable stayed bridge after completion. They form the suspension for the three bridge segments directly above the river and each carry the 100m long external span as well as 110m of the middle bridge section.
The Trio panel formwork provides the form for the up to 4.5m thick foundations of the four pylon legs while efficiently transferring the fresh concrete loads of the 22m x 22m sub-structure. The rectangular cross-section of the towering pylons is constantly changing – from 6.5m x 3.5m in the base area up to 4m x 5m below the converging pylon head. For the construction of this complex geometry, PERI has combined CB climbing formwork and the RCS rail climbing formwork.
CB 240 climbing formwork complete with formwork carriage is being used on the front sides of the pylons, and a crane moves the units consisting of brackets and VARIO GT 24 girder wall formwork from one concreting section to the next. The brackets are tilted by 8° to the vertical; thus the formwork follows the A shaped inclination of the front sides. For the forward and reversed-inclined outer surfaces of the pylon legs, the rail-guided RCS climbing formwork is said to provide the best solution. By means of mobile hydraulic pumps, the units can continuously climb regardless of the weather and without needing a crane. The climbing rails follow the constantly changing inclination of the pylon legs with angles of 16° on the inside and 18° on the outer side respectively. The fact that the working platforms can be adapted to suit the inclinations and are thus always in a horizontal position guarantees faster and safer working. Formworking operations are also said to have been accelerated as a result of ensuring that during the planning of pre-fabricated VARIO GT 24 wall formwork elements for the 60cm thick pylon walls, only a minimum of modification work was required.
With the help of the overall concept for the pylons, the construction team is able to complete each of the 24 concreting sections within an average of five days.
Positioned at a height of around 8m, the reinforcing cross connection for the two pylon legs is formed using the Multiflex slab and Trio wall formwork systems. PERI UP Rosett Flex shoring towers carry the high loads into the ground. In the upper pylon area where the two legs converge to form a massive head section, a strong lattice framework comprised of components taken from the VARIOKIT engineering construction kit serves as a safe working platform as well as a load-bearing scaffold.
The ‘Autocesta A5’ (Croatian for the A5 motorway), also known as the Slavonika, is a highway in the eastern part of Croatia which is still under construction in part. When construction is finally completed, the A5 will connect the towns of Branjin on the Hungarian border and Svilaj on the Bosnian-Herzegovinian border. Near to Osijek, the motorway crosses the River Drava – with around 750km, it is the fourth-longest tributary of the Danube.
The company says its biggest sales market in 2013 was Saudi Arabia, where it is involved in one of the most important construction projects in the world, supplying a huge quantity of its Magnus Plus model vertical formwork, Simplex Table, Linear flooring systems and MP multidirectional structures for the building of three imposing buildings in the northern area of the Al-Haram mosque in the holy city of Mecca.
Pilosio also says it is increasing its presence worldwide through new partnerships and projects in Australia, South Africa, Canada and South America.
Of its most popular formwork solutions in 2013 Luca Drigani, the firm’s external relations manager, says, “The best seller solutions were Magnum Plus and P300 formworks. Magnum is the Ideal solution for construction sites of large sizes and in order to obtain a high level of productivity even under the most difficult conditions. The system is made up of a 240x300cm base or reinforced panel, equal to 7.2m², with only four through-puts for opposing tie-rods and only two connecting blocks.”
Exhibited at
Dario Roustayan, Pilosio’s CEO, believes the future formwork market will be increasingly focused on high quality engineering service. “The quality of its products has always been Pilosio’s priority throughout its history but now the company has undertaken a step change since simply being suppliers is no longer enough. Making the difference means adapting and anticipating market needs and that’s why we are now able to offer cost-effective and rapid solutions and support for businesses and distributors, effectively becoming major consultants, working not only on the quality of the product but, above all, the service, collaborating with the customer to find the best solution from conception right through to support on the construction site.”RSS
