Bridge pylons: Cable-stayed bridges will connect islands to mainland

It is not only residential and non-residential towers that reach for the sky. The Geo Geum Bridges in Nokdong, Korea are two cable-stayed bridges that will connect the island of Geo Geum to the mainland-via Sorok Island-in the southeast of Korea.

Due to the offshore location and very high wind loads, this is a typhoon region, and limited storage and assembly areas, construction has been difficult at times, according to a spokesman for the two main contractors-Daelim (Geo Geum I) and Hyundai (Geo Geum II). Besides which all four pylons are diamond-shaped, something new for Korea.

The 2028 m long Geo Geum II Bridge will connect the islands of Sorok and Geo Geum. Sub-contractor VSL is progressing with 4 m high cycles on a weekly basis to finish the 168 m pylons “quickly and efficiently” using Peri's ACS self-climbing formwork.

“Our solution,” said a Peri spokesman, “allows the contractors to easily adapt the formwork to suit the variable cross-sections, with wall thicknesses between 1.25 and 1.60 m, without the need of any time-consuming assembly work.”

Construction of the 1160 m long Geo Geum I's two pylons has reached a height of 88 m. The bridge will link the small island of Sorok to the mainland, just north of Nokdong. Here, Peri's climbing formwork solution consisted of “a cost-effective” combination of crane and self-climbing technology with the Vario GT 24 girder wall formwork system.