The Bridges on Çanakkale Highway: A Huge Application of the Seismic Protection Technology in Europe

Çanakkale-1915 is the longest mid-span suspension bridge in the world and it is part of a mega-scale investment in transportation and infrastructure in Turkey. The bridge across the Dardanelle (Çanakkale) Strait carries a new highway connecting Europe and Asia and it will represent a new alternative to the Bosporus passage. The approach bridges are seismically isolated with high-friction curved surface sliders to accommodate the high displacement demand while dissipating the seismic energy transmitted to the piers and foundations which otherwise would be very large and costly due to the extreme seismic excitation foreseen for that region. This paper gives a complete overview of the seismic isolation system of both Asian and European approach bridges. More than 70 isolators were designed and manufactured by Freyssinet. In addition, two viaducts of the approaching highway will be presented, both equipped with viscous dampers to dissipate a huge quantity of energy and designed and tested for extremely high performances. These structures represent an application of mega anti-seismic devices, with displacement capacity up to more than one meter and design velocity above one meter per second.