ArcelorMittal Galati has supplied 34,000 tonnes of steel for one of the longest bridges in the world. The Osman Gazi Bridge in Turkey opened to traffic last week, cutting travel time between Istanbul and Izmir from nine to 3.5 hours.
ArcelorMittal Galati in Romania supplied client Çimtaş with flat steel for the bridge’s horizontal deck. The 34,000 tonnes supplied were shipped in four main lots, in a wide range and variety of thicknesses and widths.
“This project has a special importance for us, given its size”, said Bruno Ribo, chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal Flat Europe, southeast business division. “Our Galati heavy plates mill facilities produce and supply the requested plates for various applications. For the Osman Gazi Bridge, we designed a series of bespoke technical and commercial solutions”.
The bridge, that connects both sides of the Bay of Izmit in northwest Turkey, is part of a 420km highway project that shortens the distance between Istanbul and Izmir by about 140km. The US$9bn bridge project was awarded to a Turkish-Italian consortium, NOMAYG (comprised of Turkish companies Nurol, Özaltın, Makyol, Yüksel, Göçay and Italian company Astaldi) who will also operate the bridge for 23 years. The consortium awarded the bridge construction on an EPC basis to Japan’s IHI Corporation. Çimtaş was selected as the sole fabricator of both the suspension bridge’s orthotropic steel deck panels and steel tower blocks. The bridge was designed by Danish engineering design firm Cowi.
With a total length of 2,682m and a main span of 1,550m between its steel towers, Osman Gazi Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in Turkey, the second longest in Europe and the fourth longest in the world.
Want to know more? ArcelorMittal has supplied steel to most of the world’s longest bridges
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