Technical innovationfor realization of

Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge

kiandFuruya
Nobuaki
The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, whichis under
construction hy the HonshuShikoku
Bridge Authority, and has a scheduled
completion date in 1998, is the world's
longest suspension bridge, witha main
span of1990 m. It is noteworthy that the
bridge is not only large interms of the
span length but is being constructed
under verydifficult conditions: a deep soft
layer that has to be penetrated for
an
anchorage foundation (the bottom of
foundation = -61 m); water depth (45 m)
and tidalcurrent speed (4.0 m/s) at the
main pier sites; strong wind (about80 m/s)
for the design of the superstructure; and
so on. In order to overcome the difG
culties, many technical developments
have been tested and actually employed: a
unique construction method for bigand
deep foundations; the development of
highly workableconcrete with low-heat
cement; thedevelopment of high-strength
(hreaking strength = 1.8 GPa) wires for
the main cables; the construction of a
large wind tunnel (effective width for
test = 40 m) anda full-bridge modeltest in
it; and so on. In this Paper, the way in
which the basic scheme of the bridgewas
determined andthe basic concept underlying the technical innovations will be discussed.

Introduction
The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, shown in Figs 1
and 2 (Fig. 2 was taken in December 1993 from
the Honshu.side) is a three-span truss-stiffened
suspension bridge for a six-lane highway.' Its
main span length of 1990 m exceeds the UK's
Humber Bridge, which, at 1410 m. is currently
by a margin of
the longest bridge in the world,
41%. The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge is a part
of
the Kobe-Naruto route of the Honshu-Shikoku
Highway system (in total, three routes (Fig.
3)),
which represents an important direct link
between the Japanese archipelago.The
southern half of the Kobe-Naruto expressway
has been in service since 1985 when the
Ohnaruto Bridge, witha main span of 876 m,
was completed.
2. Originally, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge
was designed forboth highway and railway,
with a main spanof 1780 m. However, the
financial deteriorationof the Japan National
Railways in the 1970s and 1980s made it impossible to plan the bridge for dual purpose, and

Proc. Instn Ciu.

Engrs Structs &
Bldgs, 1994, 104,
Aug., 285-296

Structurol and
Building Boord
Structurol Panel
Poper 10434
~~

the government therefore decidedin 1985 to

carry out the project with the highway sector
only. The Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority
implemented a redesign of the bridge at that
time, and revised the schemeas mentioned previously.

Written discussion
closes 18 October 1994

Natural and social conditions of the

site
3. The Akashi Straits (called 'kaikyo' in
Japan), which separate Awaji-shima (island)
from Kobe on Honshu.are approximately4 km
wide, with a maximum depth along the proposed route of about 110 m. The straits,which
have longbeen famous for their rapid tidal
current of 4.5 m/s. area good fishing area as
well as a heavy maritime transportation route
used now by 1400 ships per day, excluding
many fishery boats.At the centreof the straits,
an international waterway with a widthof
1500 m has been designated by law. The difference in the tidal level change is not large,i.e.
less than f 1.0m.
4. The strata below the straits (Fig. 4)
consist of alluvium, upper diluvial, Akashi
layer (diluvial sand/gravel layer),Kobe layer
(loose sandstone and mud-stone deposited
in
the Pliocene) and basilar granitein sequence
(4A:
from top to bottom. Only one foundation
Awaji-side anchorage) of the four is to be supported with granite which shallowly appears
there; 1A (Kobe-side anchorage) and3P (Awajiside main pier) rest
on the Kobe layer, and2P
(Kobe-side main pier)is supported by the
Akashi layer.

Determination of basic scheme of

bridge
5. The location of the substructures, i.e. the
span arrangement, was decidedin the following
way.
6. In theory, the minimum clear span length
may be slightly longer than1500 m, which is
the width of the waterway, but it is better
for
the piers to keepoff the waterway with some
room to spare, even during construction to
ensure the safetyof maritime traffic,a s is
required by law. Accordingly, several comparative designs were developed for various main
span lengths around2000 m, and the conclusion was that the span length from
1950 m to
2050 m yielded the minimum construction cost.
7. The position of 2P was determined at an
edge of sea plateau developedat a level of -40
to -50 m, from which point the sea bottom

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Nobuoki Furuyo,
Monoger of
Planning Diuision.
Second
Operation Bureau,
(Ex-deputy
General
Manager, Torumi
Construction Office),
Honshu-Shikoku
Bridge Authority,
Japan

Masooki Tatsumi.
Director of
Construction
Department,
Third Construction
Bureau, (Ex-director,
Torumi
Construction Office).
Honshu-Shikoku
Bridge Authority,
Japan

FURUYA AND
TATSUMI
MeM sea bwl d ToXyo s t y
N H W L Nea3y hghw high watw ltnsl
TP

?A

2P

Side view

3P

4A

Prane view

Fig. 1. AkashiKaikyoBridge:
general drawing
(dimensionsinm)

at the seabottom there, was selected to be the

rapidlyincreasesitsdepth.Thedistance
from
bearing layer for3P. It wasconcluded from the
this point totheedge of thewaterwayisabout
250 m, and this space can be used as an exclu-information containedin # 7 and 8 that the
main span length of the bridge shouldhe
siveworkingareawiththeapproval
of the
Maritime SafetyAgency. At this point, the
1990 m.
geology comprises granite which appears at a 9. With regard to the two anchorages to be
depth of -260 m and theKobe layer on it
located at theboth ends, the hinterland
of 1A is
used with important transportation facilitiesa s
which has a surface a t -95 to -80 m.Resting
on the Kohe layer is the Akashi layer
the National Highway2 and Sanyo TrunkRail
(maximum diameter of the gravel includedin
Line, a s well as with a park and residential
it = 100 mm), the thickness of which is about
area. On the other hand, theback of 4A is also a
40-50 m. The Akashi layer at-60 m was
residential area and hill. It was thereforeconselected as the bearing layer for2P.
cluded that land should first be
reclaimed and
8. The position of 3P was determined as a
that the anchorages should be constructed
from
symmetrical point of 2P with regard to the
the land, notfrom the sea. However, it may
waterway. This is -36 to -39 m deep, and the both be costly and represent
an obstacle for
-57 m level of the Kobe layer, whichhas a
navigation if the reclaimed land extendstoo far
thickness of 40-65 m and is partially exposed
offshore with the objectiveof shortening the

1993

286

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AKASHI-KAIKYO
BRIDGE
length of the side span. The side span length
was therefore determined tobe 960 m.
10. The deck of the bridge has been
designed to be truss-stiffened in order to secure
the safety of the structurewhich inevitably has
a very low natural frequency, againstwind
action, and in order to facilitate theerection of
the deck on the
Alternative
designs
in which the deck was stiffened with a streamlined mono-box girder, such asin the case of
the Humber or Severn Bridge in the UK, did not
satisfy the requirement with regard to a flutter
Ocean Pacific
Sea
Japan
wind speed of not less than 78 m/s, unless the
bridge was designed intentionally with thicker
Kobe
steel plates than the truss-stiffenedone to raise
and the bridge
torsional stiffness. In other words, it wasfound
Kojima
that the designs incorporating a streamlined
\
mono-box girder, whose cross-section was
Tokyo
designed against ordinary stress (bylive load
or wind load), began to have bending-torsional
coupled flutter at 55-61 m/s, a speed
which
was far lower than the requiredone. Also, as
was proven in wind tunnel tests, the designs
showed significant buffetinga s well as vortexinduced oscillation, whichwere both not conlmabari
sidered negligible in respect of fatigue damage
OKINAWA
and serviceability of the bridge.
0
200
400
11. Many other new concepts of aerodynamic stability proposed by Japanese engiScale of km
neers were examined in both structural
analysis and wind tunnel tests. However, the
conclusions were not favourable either because
Fig. 3. Location of
the deck became rather heavier than the truss- from beneaththeseasurfacewithcranes,
Honshu-Shikoku
stiffened one or because the many big slots and which isa common methodin the erection of
judged
Bridges
air gaps providedin the girder to improve the box-girdertypesuspensionbridges,is
to be inappropriate.
air-flow characteristic inevitablylowered the
stiffness and thus the natural frequency. Fig. 5
13. In the case of the truss type girder, an
is an examplewhich was tested andconsidered
advanced technology for erection has existed in
to be inappropriate on account of the difficulty
Japan since the 1970s:i.e. a successive fullyinvolved with its erection, but it was evaluated splicing cantilever erectionmethod with
as being better than the othersfrom the point of planely pre-assembled blocks, shownin Fig. 6,
view of aerodynamic performance.
was adopted in 1987 for the erection of the Seto
12. It should be borne in mind with regard
Bridges on the Kojima-Sakaide route. In this
to the erectionof the girder of the Akashimethod, truss members are assembled into
Kaikyo Bridge that the straits beneath the
plane blocks in a workshop (each one is usually
bridge have a rapid tidal current and
convey
two panels in length and weighs around 1 MN)
and are then transported to the site. The blocks
heavy sea traffic. This means that the direct
lift-up operation of pre-assembled girder blocks are hoisted to deck level at the main towers and

Ad

Kobe side
1A

AwajiIslandside
2P

4A

3P
I

+O m
E
a

-50 m
-100 m
-150 m

-200 m

m
m

Alluvium and Upper diluvium

Akashilayer

[1777 Kobelayer

Granite

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500

looo
I

Horizontal distance: m

Fig. 4. Geological
condition beneath
Akashi Straits

287

FURUYA AND
TATSUMI

,fl,
-

B-Box
F-EIox

.&.

Fig. 5. Example of
new conceptfor
suspended deck
(dimensions in m )

cantilever erection
method

288

F-Box

are transported to erection frontson the preerected and spliced deck, whereupon they are
connected to thepre-erected truss with full
bolts; hanger ropes are then attached to this
part while the tensionin the ropes is controlled
in order to avoid over-stress. This
method can
impose full stiffnessof the girderfrom the
beginning, a fact which contributes to an
increase in the stability against wind action
during erection, thereby avoiding the kind
of
mishap thatoccurred during the erectionof the
Forth Road Bridge, when truss members that
were not yet connected collidedin the wind and
sustained some damage.
14. In the design of a long span suspension
bridge, the sag/span ratio is one
of the most
important factors. In the caseof the AkashiKaikyo Bridge, the ratiohas been determined
as 1/10, following the developmentof highstrength wires witha breaking strength of
1.8 GPa. The allowable stress hasbeen deter.

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mined as 804 MPa, while theshare of dead load

and live load in the stressof the cable have
been taken into consideration. The safety factor
to the primary tensileload condition is 2.2,
although secondary bending stress at the cable
saddles or bands is calculated to drop the
strength of cable by3%. As a result, the topof
each tower is 297 m above sealevel, a height
which was lowered from 333 m when the wires
had an original breaking and allowable
strength of 1-6 GPa and 627 MPa respectively.
The numberof main cables in one side,
which
is now one, was two(so called double cables)at
that time.
15. The bridge has been well designed to
withstand violent wind whose return
period is
calculated to be 150 years. Although it is
common for the entireproject, the first stepof
the wind-proof design is the determinationof
as 10 min
the reference wind speed defined
averaged speed at 10 m above the sea surface.
Design wind speeds for various structural
members (e.g. cable, tower and girder) are then
to be determined from this, with consideration
of the fluctuation of natural wind in the
domains of space and timeas well as of the
oscillatory characteristics of members. Wind
load for the static design is therefore calculated
from this, while the effectof buffeting is taken
into account. Finally, safety against flutter is
checked by a wind tunnel test. In other words,
it can be said that there are three types
of wind
speed that need to be taken into accountin the
design of, for example, the stiffening girder:
the reference speed is 46 m/s (although this is
for the entire bridge); the design
wind speed is
59.8 m/s; the criticalwind speed for flutteris
78 mls.

AKASHI -KAIKYO
RRTDGE

16. The bridge has also been designed to

withstand earthquakes with a magnitude
of 8.5
(the epicentre distance is150 km) on the Japanese scale. The basisof the aseismic design for
the substructure is: response spectrummethod
with 2 degrees of freedom .
17. As a result of the design of superstructure, the deadload (of cables and deck)
becomes 42.60 ton/m (417 000 N/m), and the
cable-pull to an anchorage and the vertical
reaction to the tower-top are calculated to
be
1.2 GN and 1.0 GN respectively. In addition,
the height of incoming point of the main cable
to the anchorage becomes + 52.0 m.

Construction of Kobe-side anchorage

foundation

TP + 52.0

dia. 85.0

Slurry wall

Fig. 7. Structure of
1A (Kobe-side
anchorage)
(dimensions in m)

18. The bearing layer for 1A (Kobe-side

anchorage) of the Kobe layer appears at about
reclamation of the working yard
-55 m, above which are two soft layersof alluconstruction of a circular continuous
vium and diluvial to support the gigantic foununderground wall by means of the slurryd a t i ~ nThe
. ~ Kobe layer at the1A site has an
trench method
approximate total thickness of 120 m, and has
excavation
of the inside soil androck by
alternating stratification comprising rather
using
the
underground
wall as a retaining
fresh and strong sandstonea s well as deteriorwall
while
underground
water is pumped
ating and weak mud-stone. Themechanical
up
through
deep
wells,
as
is shownin Fig.
characteristics of the layer do not necessarily
8; the reason for the circular shapeis that
improve a s the depth increases. The entire
its structuralefficiency will resist lateral
layer hasbeen classsified into four substrata,
pressure.
and the bottom of the foundation was designed
after excavation, fillingof the inside
to rest on the sandstone layerof the first group
mainly with roller compacted concrete
which was to appear at about -61 m (Fig. 7).
(RCC) (a very lean and hard concrete that
The allowable bearing capacity,which was the
cannot be compacted with ordinary vibramost dominant factor to govern the design, was
tors but with vibrating rollers) to
complete
concluded to be 2.5 MPa.
the
foundation.
19. The intermediate layer from the surface
of the original seabottom to the Kobe layer
21. The slurry trench used here had a wall
would have become an obstacle to foundation
thickness, length, and vertical accuracyof
work, whose plane area was calculated tobe
excavation of 2.2 m, 75.5 m (from +2.5 m to
more than 5000 m, in two ways if the work had -73 m) and ljl000, re~pectively.~
At the
been carried out by caisson method (either open beginning, the inside excavation was planned
caisson or pneumatic caisson). First, the upper to go down to -62 m (in fact, the excavation
part of the geology could not support the huge
stopped at -61 m because an adequate bearing
cutting edgeof the caisson without some kind layer was obtained); therefore, a further
11 m
of temporary foundation work. Second, the
of slurry trench were constructed. The decision
intermediate strata might have exertedtoo
for this embedment was made on the basis of
much friction against sinking. Another possible checks on the stability of the ground, stress and
construction method was that of rigid founda- deformation of the wall, seepage water volume
tion with underground diaphragms constructed and so on during the deep excavation.
22. Owing to the fact that the scaleof the
by the slurry-trench method,of which there
inside excavation wasbeyond previous experiare a few examples in Japan having up to few
a
ences of underground storage tanks, it was
hundred m2in terms of the plane area.
judged necessary to monitor, to record and to
However, it was judged that 1A was too large
simulate such itemsas behaviour of the wall,
to be constructed by this method and that the
distribution of the earth and water pressure,
method was unsatisfactory becauseof its
and displacement of the ground. For this
longer construction period.
20. It was therefore concluded that the foun- reason, a monitoring systemcomposed of more
than 450 sensors, andof computer and opticaldation shouldbe constructed by the method
described below, which incorporates the under- fibre cables connectingthem, has been
ground slurry-trench method and has been used installed. An on-site computer automatically
widely in Japan in recent years for the construc- gathers all the data every 15 minutes, displays
the current situation and gives a warning
if
tion of many underground storage tanks of
necessary. The datawere also analysed by a
crude oil or liquefied natural gas

289
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FURUYA AND

Fig. 8. View of deep

excavation at I A

technical institution on behalf of the contractor cosity for the desegregation of the coarse
toaidthelatterstechnicalassessment
in
aggregate.Afterthreeyears
of researchand
respect of the future plan of the work. Fig. 9 is investigation, including tests with a full-size
an example of the monitoring result(a compari- test cast, a concrete with the following characson of the data from the shallow to the deep
teristics was developed.6
excavation stages).
( a ) The specific design strength at the age of

91 days is24 M&.

( b ) The maximum size of the coarse aggregate
is 40 mm.
at both endsof the bridge is a gravitational
(c) The range of slump flow is 45-60 cm. This
structure, as can be seen in Fig. 10 (1A in
means that the concrete can
flow from one
December 1993). Apart of the body has thick
point to the radiusof about 10 m without
reinforcements (e.g. three layers of 51 mm
substantial deterioration.
rebars at250 mm centres) as well as two cable
( d ) As is common for the Akashi-Kaikyo
anchor-frames to fix the main cables. In addiBridge Project, low-heat cement is used.
tion, the pressure to reduce the construction
When the unit cement content is
260 kg/m3
time of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge hasbeen so
(2550 N) a s here, its adiabatic temperature
strong that the concretingvolume for each cast
rise is restricted tobelow 25C. and its
is required to be about1900 m per day,
resistance to thermal cracking is
accord.
although the work is legallylimited to the
ingly high. This cement utilizes pulverized
daytime. Furthermore, skilled workers who are
blast furnace slag, whose content can be
able to compact rigid concrete perfectly have
enhanced to 80%.
become scarce in Japan recently.
( e ) High-range AE water.reducing admixture
24. For these reasons, it was concluded that
and pulverized limestone powderare used
the main meansof securing the qualityof the
for the fluidityand viscosity respectively.
concrete structure should be
moved from the
(f)It has also been confirmed in the laboratory
site to theselection of the material and the conthat the concreteis not inferior to ordinary
crete plant, and that new
a
concrete which
widely-used concrete in terms of long-term
required only minimal compaction work had to
durability, resistivity to the carbonation,
be developed. The necessary, apparently concreep, shrinkage, andso on.
tradictory characteristics of such highly work25. In actual concreting, the concrete is cast
of fluidity to flow freely
able concrete are those
automatically from gate valvesprovided along
for a distance under its own weight, and
of vis-

Body of anchorages
23. The body of the two anchorages located

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AKASHI-KAIKYO
BRIDGE
kgflcm'

500 1500
1000

Measuring position

(Kgf/cm2 l 0 0 kPa)

2P

10.1.1991: Excavation = -17 m

6:OO
c- -4 Outside
Inside

---

16.8.1991: Excavation = -61 m

6:OO

__

Outside
Inside

- - Estimation

( a ) Stress in rebars in circumference direction

Compression

kgflcm'

Tension
15010

---_
.

_ / - -

Fig. 9. Example of
measurement on
retaining wall taken
during excavation
at 1A

291
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FURUYA AND
TATSUMI

4
Fig. 10. View of
anchorage work at I A
in December 1993
concrete pipes, a s shown in Fig. 11. Five to six
pipes are arranged at approximate intervals
of
5 m in one concreting block, which has a
maximum plane area of 1200 m; the gate
valves from which the concrete is poured are
attached along the lengthof the pipe at 5 m
intervals. On each pipe, the numberof gates
open at any onemoment is always one; the
opening of one gate and the closing
of the other
are programmed to occur automatically at
about 1 min intervals. The casting speed
through one pipe is about40 m/h; and the pro.
duction volumeof one centralized on-site conCrete plant is approximately 240 m3/h. The
total volume of this concrete castfor the two
anchorages was380 000 m, and it was completed by April 1994.
26. It is also noteworthy that for the outer
form of the bodywork, which is not removed,
precast concrete panels were used.The main
purposes of this are: precast panels whose
concrete hasbeen carefully compacted in a factory
have a superior surface than on-site cast mass
concrete, a fact which contributes towards
raising the appearanceof the anchorages to be
located in a future park; the panels made
from
ordinary cement can protect low-heat concrete,
in which the cement content of the clinkeris
less than 30%, from a marine atmosphere.
Rebars used in the panels are epoxy-coatedin
order to resist penetrationof chloric ion.

Construction of main piers

27. The construction of the two main piers
in the straitswhere the conditions were very
difficult, a s discussed in 3 and 4 had been
considered the most crucial technical aspectof
a result, a variety
the entire bridge project. As

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of research, investigation and on-site experimental work was conducted to establish the
method, while the constructionof many underwater foundations were carried out successfully
on the Kojima-Sakaide route, which was
another of the Honshu-Shikoku Bridges and
was completed in 1988.
28. The method used on the KojimaSakaide hasbeen called the laying-down
caisson method, although a foundation constructed by this method is not, in fact, a caisson
(a deep rigid foundationwhich has aneffective
embedment), but a spread foundation. Themain
characteristics of this method are asfollows.
Excavation and the buildingof a form for
underwater concrete are split into separate
procedures: i.e. excavation up to bearing
layer is carried out initiallyat open sea
with a grab dredger, concurrent with the
building of a steel form (conveniently
called a caisson but not a structural
member) in a shipyard.
As a resultof this separation, themethod
of excavation and the machineryfor it are
not restricted by the sizeof the dredging
wells of the caisson, thereby enabling the
work period to be shortened while a larger
volume of the excavation is completed.
After the completion of the excavation, the
steel caisson is towed to the site, sunk with
high accuracy to theposition specified in
the design, whereupon underwaterconcrete
was cast into the bulk
of the foundation a s
rapidly a s possible and ordinary reinforced
concrete was applied to the top part to
complete the foundation. Fig. 12 shows the
sinking operation of a steel caisson in 1989
at the Akashi Straits.

AKASHI-KAIKYO
RRIDGE

( d ) With regard to the typeof concrete utilized

for the underwater portion, prepacked
conCrete was used for the foundations
of
Kojima-Sakaide route, but desegregation
(anti-washout) concreteformed from a
special admixturewhich was developed
later was cast for the Akashi-Kaikyo
Bridge.

Table 1 compares and contrasts the layingdown caisson method used for the KojimaSakaide and the Akashi-KaikyoBridges.
29. In the case of the excavation for the
main piersof the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, the
grab dredgers used achievea maximum dredging capacity perblow of 32.5 m, but a grab
weighing 2 MN with 17.5 m was used for the
excavation of the Kobe layer. Although such
gigantic dredgers (one vessel for onepier) were
used, the excavation had to be halted
when the
tidal speed exceeded about 4 kt (approximately
2 m/?,). The vessels had a mooring capacity up
to 8.5 kt when the sideof the ship was clear,
but 5.5 kt when a fully-loaded barge to carry
out the dredged material was
moored at its
side. This grab dredging must be carried out
accurately (specified value = k50 cm) to allow
the caisson to be sunk within the permitted
inclination or height error. This requirement
was fulfilledby the following means: the useof
a special operation in which a flat-edged grab
was closed while it was being lifted up; the limiting of the work toweak tide; the repeated
measuring with a multi-fan ultrasonicbeam
sensor; and so on.
30. With regard to concreting, a concrete
plant mounted on a large barge was constructed for each pier by the contractors. This
plant barge could store the material equivalent
to 9000-10000 m of the concrete, and could be
moored at the site with many anchor
lines.
Material was supplied duringweak tide, and
Fig. 11. View ojconcreting with highly workable concrete
then underwater concreting was carried out
on

Table 1. Comparison oflayingdown caisson methodas used j a r two bridges

Items
Type
Plain dimension
Bottom of foundation
Original sea depth
Maximum tidal speed
Geological condition
Excavation method
Finishing the bottom
Weight of mooring anchor
Diameter of mooring anchor rope
Steel weight of a caisson
Method of underwater concreting
Volume of underwater concrete
Work period for foundation

?A of Minami Bisan-Set0 Bridge (max.

foundation of Kojima-Sakaide route)
Anchorage foundation
75 m X 59 m (=4430 m)
-50 m

-14
-22 m
1.0 m/s

Sedimentary layer + granite

Jnderwater blast +dredger
)rilling machine mounted on SEP
00 ton (9 MN)

2P of Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge

dia. 80 m (=5020 m)

+ 45 m
3.5 m/sec
Akashi-layer (sand andgravel)
Dredger
Flat teeth bucket
1000 ton (10 MN)

6 mm

120 mm

,7800 ton (180 MN)

15300 ton (150 MN)

Desegregation concrete
265 000 m
About 4 years

repacked concrete
!33000m3

ibout

years

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FURUYA AND
TATSIIMI

Fig. 12. View of

caisson-sinking
operation

three successive days and nights during strong reinforced concrete, into which tower anchortide to complete the
volume. As the steel
frames to fasten the baseof the tower legs were
caisson was a double-walled structure-a botembedded.
tomless centre core part and an outer fringe
part with a bottom to generatebuoyancy-the
Development of high-strength wire
core was cast first step by step, with an approx-31. On account of the fact that a suspension
imate lift of 4 m, and then the fringe, which had bridge can span a long distance by being hung
a small plane area, wascast from the bottom to
from the cable, the strengthof the cable
the top while bulkheads to increase the
material strongly influences designof the
caissons stability while afloatwere utilized as
bridge. In Fig. 13,the history of the breaking
a form of partitioning. The uppermost part
strength and the allowable stress
of the wires
from -10 m to + l 0 m of the pier is ordinary
used in famous suspension bridges isshown. It

190

C.Tensilestrength

-Mount Hope
-Benjamin Franklin

Verrazano-Narrows

(Kgf/mm2

Fig. 13. History of

improvement of
wirestrength of cable

1900

1910

294

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1950
192019401930

1960
Year

+ 10 MPa)
,1970
19901980

2wO

AKASHI-KAIKYO
BRIDGE
is obvious that the strength had not
been
improved much between the 1930s and the
present day.
32. In the case of the Akashi-Kaikyo
Bridge, however, an improvement in the
strength was requestedin order to refine the
design of the entire bridge,as is discussedin
0 14. The enhanced strength of the wire was
achieved by adding more silicon to conventional high carbon wires. The contentof silicon is
increased from 0.12-0.32% to 0.8-1.0%. This
method does not decrease productivity, ascom.
pared with a method in which more manganese
and chrome are added to raise the strength, nor
lower the strength after galvanization with
zinc, as compared with a method in which more
carbon is added or the original wire (usually
around 12 mm) is drawn into a finer diameter
(less than 5 mm).
33. As the main cables of many of the suspension bridges in the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge
Project have been constructed by meansof the
' Prefabricated strand method', the cables of the
Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge are also going tobe
erected by this method. In Japan, the number
of
wires not permitted to have any jointshas been
127 for suspension bridges, and the numberof
strands in the main cable of the bridge was
designed at 290 (Fig. 14). It was therefore
decided that the diameterof each individual
wire was to be 5.23 mm so as to avoid any
redundancy. The weightof a strand with a
length of approximately 4 km is about
900 000 N.
34. When the prefabricated strand method
is adopted, eachof the strands mustbe given
an exact lengthin the factory (for the bridge:
4074.284-4071.402 m), although a few adjustments after erection are possible.An essential
prerequisite for this is the making
of a 'gauge
wire ' which designates not only the entire
length but also such important points as the
centre of each span, of the saddles, and so on.
Since the constructionof the Ohnaruto Bridge
in the early part of 1980s, the method used for
this has been the ' magnetic measurement
system ', which is a system akin to a tape
recorder. In this system, an objective wire
which corresponds to the tape runs through two
sets of head : one is a marking head, and the
other is a detecting head whose distance is
exactly 5 m. The first marking head gives the
wire magnetic mark which is tobe read by the
second detecting head; the latter head sends a
signal to the former head to mark
one more as
soon as it detects the mark on an incoming
wire. The accuracy of measurement of this
system is about 1/30000.

Construction of a large wind tunnel

and the test within it
35. The importance of the routine wind
tunnel test in the design of a suspension bridge

Cable section

"

Fig. 14. Cable,

strands and wires
(dimensions inm m )

has been widely recognized since the collapse

of the Tacoma Narrows Bridgein 1940.
However, the primary test in this case hasbeen
a two-dimensional one with a rigid section
model; three-dimensional tests with a full
bridge model have been conducted for special
cases.
36. In the case of the Akashi-Kaikyo
Bridge, static displacement under the design
wind speed condition reaches about 32 m,as
shown in Fig. 15. A change in the displacement
along the bridge axis generates a change
in the
angle of attack (about -6" at the span centre
and zero at the spanend), and the angleof
attack strongly governsboth static and
dynamic airflow force given to the bridge.
Although the above-mentioned is oneof the
reasons why a largewind tunnel, in which a
full model of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge could
be tested, was needed, the Honshu-Shikoku
Bridge Authority constructed a large boundary
layer wind tunnel, whose effective width is
40 m, in Tsukuba City with the intention of
promoting wind engineering for much longer
span bridges.
37. The width of40 m was chosen so as to
let a l j l 0 0 model of the 4 km bridge be placed,
and 1/100 was considered appropriate to make
a model with a high accuracyof similarity in
both geometry and elasticity. The static and the
dynamic characteristics of the bridge were fully
tested in both smooth airflow and turbulent
airflow. One of the most important conclusions
reached is, of course, that observed flutterwind
speed cleared the required valueof 78 mjs.

Conclusions
38. Construction work for the AkashiKaikyo Bridge has been progressing smoothly
so far, asis shown in the figures, with the
implementation of the various technical innovations that are discussed. The first stageof the
cable work as well as the first link between the
two shores-spanning the pilot rope-were
finished on 10 November, 1993, and thiswill be
followed by the erection of the catwalk and the
main cables in 1994. The erection of the stiffening girder will be started in the spring of 1995,
working towards the scheduledcompletion date
of March 1998.

295
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FURUYA AND

Fig. 15. V i e w o f w i n d
tunnel test w i t h f u l l
model

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