EURO MED SEC 03


ALAMILLO BRIDGE: CONSTRUCTION SIMULATION MODELS IN EZSTROBE

PHOTIOS G. IOANNOU, VEERASAK LIKHITRUANGSILP


Abstract

The Puente del Alamillo in Seville, Spain, designed by Santiago Calatrava, has a single pylon that rises at an angle away from the deck, and which together with the deck resembles a harp whose strings are the cable stays from the pylon to the deck. It is the only bridge of its kind in the world whose pylon is not back-anchored, and its deck and pylon balance at a single massive footing below the pylon. This design made construction of the bridge very risky because the unfinished bridge had to be kept in balance like a giant teeter-totter until it could rest at the secondary support away from the pylon. A total of three construction plans were investigated by the contractor with the first two rejected and the third used for construction. Previous research presented simulation models for these three plans in CYCLONE along with construction time estimates for the bridge deck and pylon. Unfortunately, the published simulation models had mistakes that led to incorrect statistical results and conclusions. This paper describes these mistakes and presents three simulation models in EZStrobe that produce appropriate statistics and conclusions. These models can be used as practical examples for the application of discrete-event simulation to construction.

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