Mokpo Bridge: New Landmark in Mokpo City

Byoung-Jin Kim, Deputy Manager; Sang-Hun Lee, Deputy Manager; GS E&C, Seoul, Republic of Korea and
Ho-Kyung Kim, Associate Prof., Dr., Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul,
Republic of Korea. Contact: [email protected]
DOI: 10.2749/101686612X13216060213031

Abstract
The Mokpo cable-stayed bridge has
become a new landmark in Mokpo city,
Korea. This bridge has a unique feature
from an aesthetic and structural point
of view and will be the second longest
cable-stayed bridge in Korea with a
main span length of 500 m. This paper
presents a summary of design and con-
struction of the Mokpo Bridge, mainly
focused on the superstructure of the
cable-stayed bridge and wind-related
consideration.
Keywords: cable-stayed bridge; three-
way cable system; wind-tunnel test;
aerodynamic analysis; construction
monitoring.

Introduction
Fig. 1: The Mokpo cable-stayed bridge
The Mokpo Bridge was initiated in
2005 as a fixed link structure con-
necting the North Harbor to Goha roadway (four lanes, excluding fairings) a hybrid cable arrangement, the main
Island and, when it opens in 2012, and two pylons are reinforced concrete span of which has two cable planes and
will improve the accessibility between structures with a height of 167,5 m. The the side span has a single cable plane. It
the New Harbor and the logistics clearance and width of the navigational is called three-way cable system (Fig. 2).
facilities near Mokpo city, such as the channel under the center span of this So, in the center span, stay cables are
Korea West Coast Highway and Muan bridge are 53 and 400 m, respectively. anchored at the outer webs of the cross
International Airport and will respond section and in the side spans, they are
to the transportation demand in the Superstructure anchored at the center line of the road.
region. Also, it is expected to be a land- For this arrangement, structural safety,
This bridge has a unique feature from
mark for Mokpo city as a gateway to especially against torsional moment of
an aesthetic point of view. The diamond
the Mokpo Harbor. the side spans was verified.
shape of the pylon was adapted from the
The total length of this sea-crossing shape of a crane, the bird that is symbolic The anchorages of the center span
infrastructure project is 4130 m and of Mokpo city, and the black and white are designed to be exposed above the
the total length of the bridge is 3060 m. mixed colors of the cables came from upper flange and those of the side
The cable-stayed bridge going across the colors of the crane’s wing (Fig. 1). spans are placed in the interior of the
the main seaway of the Mokpo Harbor Especially, to visualize the movement box girder.
is Korea’s first cable-stayed bridge that of the crane’s wings, Mokpo Bridge has
The multi-strand (MS) type is adopted
adopts the three-way cable system. The for the stay cables and the cables are clas-
approaching bridges are precast con- Center Span sified into four groups according to the
crete box girder bridges with a total Side Span number of strands in a stay (33, 55, 61, 73
length on both sides of 2160 m. strands). The strand is 7-0,62’’ galvanized
Prestressed Concrete (PC) strand and its
tensile strength is 1770 MPa.
Design
Wind-Resistant Design
The main bridge of the project is a
three-span cable-stayed bridge which A series of wind-tunnel tests were per-
consists of a center span of 500 m and formed both for the section and full mod-
side spans of 200 m on each side (200 Fig. 2: Location of the cable stays for the els at the design stage of the bridge for
+ 500 + 200 = 900 m). The main girder centre span (blue) and for the side span securing flutter stability, aerodynamic
is of steel box type with a 24,5 m wide (yellow) safety and serviceability. According to

Structural Engineering International 1/2012 Technical Report 29

 : Spring
: Loadcell

Ultrasonic type Ultrasonic type

Propeller type anemometer
anemometer anemometer
Wind
Pier 14

Pier 14 Pier 13

Fig. 3: Verification of stabilizing performance via wind-tunnel tests Fig. 4: Wind observation at the tops of the piers of approaching spans

the Korean Bridge Design Code,1 the tory by using the measure–correlate– struction, even after installation was done,
basic design wind velocity was set to 45 predict algorithms.2 This procedure such that exact break angle of the joint
m/s at 10 m height for the bridge site. enables the engineers to transform between the first and second large blocks
The streamlined box girder adopted for the long-term wind data studied at the could be achieved after the floating
the deck section with fairings, helped in observatory into the bridge site with crane’s lifting wires were disconnected
avoiding any harmful vibration in the more confidence. The wind velocity and the first and second permanent stay
completed bridge structure within the for the structures in construction was cables could be stressed by proper ten-
considered range of wind velocity. estimated as 34,8 m/s at the deck level sion forces in just one stressing step.
through the correlation analysis. The
The HDPE stay pipe that protects seasonal variation of wind velocity was Stay cables are post-tensioned at the
the strands adopts a helix type for also monitored and utilized in the final anchorages of the pylon by a mono-
better performance during rain-induced scheduling of girder erection and in strand jack. The strands in a stay are
vibration. Friction-type dampers are securing a reasonable aerodynamic sta- stressed one by one, but all the strands
also employed to mitigate the vibra- bilizing measure for the critical stage. in one stay have the same tension
tion of the stay cables. forces in spite of the equalizing process.
Erection of Girders and Installation 24 loadcells were installed for the
Wind Stabilizing Measures of Stay Cables cables to investigate the change in
in Construction tension during every stage of the
The erection of the girder was started
As the balanced cantilever method is prior to the completion of the pylon superstructure.
chosen for the construction of super- in order to avoid the typhoon sea- The typical segments of length of 15 m
structures, buffeting-induced aerody- son which usually starts from June in have been designed to be erected by
namic forces have been evaluated for Korea. The side-span closures were derrick cranes as a cyclic process using
the critical stages of construction. The completed successfully in May 2011, the balanced cantilever method (Fig. 6).
most vulnerable stage is just before which was the critical stage for stabi-
the side span closure. Several coun- lizing the wind turbulence. Several dispositions of the stabilizing
termeasures of using stabilizing cables cables were investigated via buffeting
with various arrangements have been The first segment of the girder, which analysis and wind-tunnel tests along with
proposed with buffeting analysis and a weighs 470 tonf, was erected by a 3600 wind observation at the site.The inclined
series of aeroelastic wind-tunnel tests tonf floating crane. This large segmen- stabilizing cables near the pylons were
being performed for the verification of tal block was sustained by temporary finally adopted for the stabilizing the
mitigating effect, as shown in Fig. 3. stays connected to the cross beam of cantilevered structures until the side
the pylon (Fig. 5). The second segment spans were closed (Fig. 7).
of 370 tonf was erected by a 2200 tonf
Construction floating crane again with the help of The two large blocks of each side span
temporary stays. The temporary stays with length of 31,95 m and weight of
Wind Observation were removed after the installation 530 tonf were erected by a 3000 tonf
of the second pair of permanent stay floating crane.
Prior to the construction of the cable-
cables. The temporary stays supported The final key segment closure of the
stayed bridge, couple of ultrasonic
the large segments instead of float- center span was finished by the middle
anemometers has been installed at
ing cranes, which enabled the welding of August before the typhoon season
the top of piers in the approaching
and bolting process to be carried out
span, as shown in Fig. 4. The 2 years of 2011.
quickly by eliminating vibrational dis-
time delay between the completion of
turbance of floating cranes due to fluc- Geometry Control
piers and starting of girder erection in
tuating waves.
approaching spans, made it possible to The geometry of the cable-stayed bri-
do a correlation analysis on the wind In particular, the anchorage system of dge during construction is being con-
velocities measured at the bridge site the temporary cable was able to adjust trolled such that the bridge’s final
and at the meteorological observa- its unstressed length of cable during con- profile will coincide with the design

30 Technical Report Structural Engineering International 1/2012

Fig. 5: Erection of the first segment of girder Fig. 6: Erection of typical segment

corresponding bridge responses are

being investigated.

Conclusion
The Mokpo Bridge provides an exam-
ple of the many aspects of Korea’s cur-
rent design and construction level of
long-span bridges, especially the wind-
related consideration. And the design
and construction of cable-stayed bridge
with hybrid cable arrangement (three-
way cable system) was successfully
verified.

References
[1] Korea Road & Transportation Association.
Korean Bridge Design Code, 2010.
[2] Rogers AL, Rogers JW, Manwell JF. Com-
parison of the performance of four measure-
Fig. 7: Balanced cantilever method before side span closing correlate-predict algorithms. J. Wind Eng Ind
Aerodyn. 2005; 93: 243–264.
profile within tolerance after 10 000 Monitoring during Construction
days, by then the creep and shrinkage
An integrated monitoring system is
effect of the concrete is expected to be
applied to the bridge structures to
stabilized.
measure environmental loadings and
The geometry control of this project structural behavior during construc- SEI Data Block
is through “the cable length control tion. Three anemometers are deployed
method” based on dimension of the at three different levels along the Owner:
structural elements. In this method, pylon. The vibration of the structure is Ministry of Land, Transport and Mari-
exact and integrated management also monitored at several points such time Affairs, Korea
of the dimensions of all the bridge as the top of the pylon and the tip of Structural design:
elements, such as stay cables, girder the cantilever. The inclinometers are Dasan Consultants Co., Ltd
segments, pylon, are very crucial. also installed at the pylon to monitor Main contractor:
Thorough preparations were therefore the geometry change of the pylon dur- GS Engineering & Construction
required before the erection of super- ing construction. All the data obtained
structure started. The weight of each from the sensors are stored in an in situ Concrete (m3)
box girder which is the most impor- computer server in real time and trans- – Pylon: 12 700
tant factor for geometry sensitivity ferred to the web server by using a 3G – Foundation: 45 600
was measured by loadcells before they modem. Engineers can access the data
Structural steel (t): 11 000
were transferred from the fabrication through Internet and also with smart
factory, and the differences between phones. Couple of typhoons invaded Cable (t): 1400
the estimated weight and the mea- the Korean peninsula at the time of Project cost (USD million): 285
sured weight for a standard block with deck erection and after the side span
Service date: June 2012
a length of 15 m were under 1%. closure. The measured wind data and

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