Engineers Damper Potential Sway of Italy’s Olympic Span
Engineers are using lessons learned from London’s Millennium Bridge, notorious for wobbling on its opening day, to prevent an unwelcome repeat situation on a slender, curved new cable-stayed structure nearing completion in Turin, Italy. In the absence of design codes for pedestrian-induced sway, the new bridge’s designer asked engineers of the London structure to devise a damping system.
Turin’s 368-meter-long, $11-million bridge links the city’s Winter Olympic village with the recently completed Lingotto commercial center. Its 156-m-long main span, which soars over railroad tracks, is supported by eight pairs of cable stays. These are anchored to a 69-m-tall parabolic arch, which spans 55 m across the deck. With a box section of three 3-m sides, the arch leans toward the railroad and is stabilized by eight pairs of back stays.