RION-ANTIRION BRIDGE: DESIGN AND FULL-SCALE TESTING OF THE SEISMIC PROTECTION DEVICES

SUMMARY The Rion-Antirion Bridge, that crosses the homonymous strait in Greece, is located in a very activeseismic region. The deck of this multi-span cable-stayed bridge is continuous and fully suspended fromfour pylons (total length of 2252 meters). Its approach viaducts comprise 228m of concrete deck on theAntirion side and 986m of steel composite deck on the Rion side. Said structures are designed towithstand seismic events generating ground accelerations of up to 0.48g through the use of fluid viscousdampers and other seismic devices.The Main Bridge seismic protection system comprises fuse restraints and viscous dampers of dimensionsheretofore never built. The same act in parallel, connecting the deck to the pylons. The restrainers aredesigned as a rigid link intended to withstand high wind loads up to a pre-determined force. Under theaction of the design earthquake, fuse restrainers will fail and leave the dampers free to dissipate theearthquake-induced energy acting upon the structure. The Approach Viaducts are seismically isolatedutilizing elastomeric isolators and viscous dampers.This paper aims to describe the aforesaid seismic protection systems as well as the results of theextensive full-scale testing they underwent to verify design assumptions. The Damper Prototype testswere performed at the of the University of San Diego California Laboratory (USA), while the FuseRestraints test and all production tests were carried out at the FIP Industriale Testing Laboratory in Italy.