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  Seismicity and constructability govern design of submerged tube bridge

  The Golden Horn in Istanbul is being crossed by several bridges, one of them to be replaced by a tunnel. The river has a steep profile with densely populated banks. Because of the planned connections to the boulevards, traditional solutions (immersed tunnel in a trench, TBM tunnel) proved not feasible. Commissioned by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), Arcadis designed a shallow tunnel above the river bed. Because of the severe seismic conditions, the ability to respond to dynamic soil displacements without leakage or collapse was key in the design. The basic design philosophy was ‘limited flexibility’: flexible enough to follow the movements without build-up of detrimental forces, but limited in order to avoid detrimental joint openings. The reference design was supported by piers consisting of steel tubes founded in the bedrock, 30-50 m below the tunnel axis. The tunnel would consist of short immersion elements, connected to the transition structures with a flexible seismic joint. Because of changing economical and political situation, the project was put on hold after contract close. The paper describes the reference design with emphasis on the seismic influence on general concept and details.

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