Summaries

New Esenler Viaduct is composed of two viaducts with lengths of 129 meters (Section-1) and 291 meters (Section-2) respectively in the scope of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Bus Terminal Bağcılar Mass Transit Rail System Construction and Electromechanical Works. Certain portion of the viaduct infrastructure has been previously built and existed at its current location at the start of the project. It is planned to connect the viaduct to Esenler station along with the superstructure and infrastructure to be constructed. Contractor of viaduct construction is Gülermak-Doğuş Joint Venture, consultant is Emay Uluslararası Mühendislik Müşavirlik ve Tic. Ltd. şti. and designer is Yüksel Proje Uluslararası A.ş. It is planned to complete the construction of Esenler Viaduct and open to service in April 2013.

As the existing infrastructure was vulnerable to the great earthquake expected in Istanbul, structural reinforcement works have been executed. Seismic insulation supports called lead-core rubber bearers (LRB) have been chosen to reduce the earthquake loads acting on the infrastructure and these elements have been placed after the performance of tests in the laboratory of EuCentre, Italy.

There exist a total of 10 spans in Section-1, the longest being 33 meters. In Section-2, there exist 5 spans in total and the longest span is 40 meters in length. Bridge superstructure for both bridges is continuous and expansion joints are located at the abutment in both. Continuous superstructure eliminates the risk of beams falling from their supports in case of earthquake and also provided a more effective structure with dividing the bending moment under loading as bearing and span moment. One lane pass through the bridge and platform width of the bridge is 5.30 meters.

Steel superstructure has been chosen to reduce the forces transferred to the infrastructure during earthquakes and have an aesthetic appearance. A superstructure system composed of two steel U-beams and above which cast-in-place concrete beams have been chosen for the sake of ease of constructability.