THE RADES-LA GOULETTE BRIDGE

High strength concrete at work in Tunisia

 PROJECT DESCRIPTION

INTRODUCTION
PROJECT DETAILS

COUNTRY: TUNISIA
TOWN: RADS-LA GOULETTE
UTILITY: ROAD BRIDGE
TYPE: CABLE STAYS BRIDGE
LENGTH: 260 M
WIDTH: 23.5 M
HEIGHT: 20 M
MATERIAL: CONCRETE
TIME OF WORK: FROM 2004 TO 2009
COST OF THE PROJECT: 141 MILLION TND, THE EQUIVALENT
TO 110 MILLION USD MAINLY FINANCED BY THE JBIC (JAPANESE
BANK) AND TUNISIA.

The grand Tunis region is divided into Southern and Northern areas
by the Tunis lake canal, and the traffic between the two areas depends
ONE MAJOR STAKE HAS on either routes passing through the urban area of Tunis or ferryboats
BEEN THE RELIEF OF THE connecting Rads and La Goulette ports. The ferryboats however are
TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND limited in service, frequency, and capacity and most of the south-north
IMPROVEMENT OF THE traffic concentrates on the routes passing through the urban area of
ENVIRONMENT IN THE Tunis, causing traffic congestion and environmental deterioration in the
URBAN AREA OF TUNIS city.
As the economic activities in this region have been developing, the
tourist demand has been increasing accordingly. Therefore one major
stake has been the relief of the traffic congestion and improvement of
the environment in the urban area of Tunis.

Against such a background, several works have been implemented, such

as the road related projects based on the ninth National Development
Plan (1997-2001), which all aim at mitigating the traffic congestion in the
area. The Rads-La Goulette Bridge project is also considered as a major
link connecting the Southeast and Northwest areas of the metropolitan
area.

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 PROJECT CHALLENGES

T he reasons behind the project

were several. First, it was time
something had been done to
solve the paradoxical situation
where the Southern and Northern
suburbs, both considered as the
continuity of the capital and
overlooking the Mediterranean

CHALLENGES
sea, both representing important
complementary economic and
industrial poles, were separated
by the Tunis navigation canal.
Besides, before that project was
undertaken, the link between
the two poles was assured by
crossing the city or directly via
ferries (limited capacity, limited
weight <3.5 tons, dependence on
weather conditions and sea traf-
fic). Therefore another way had
to be found.

Having said that, many challen-

ges yet needed to be overcome in
the building of the new structure:

Construction of a new generation of stay Cable Bridge of 260m length by successive corbelled
construction method

Execution of drilled piles of 2m of diameter and 75m of depth

Sand filling of 20Ha of the North lake over very soft clay and in a sensitive and specific ecosystem

Treatment of the settlement of the soil by drains and weight consolidation method

Execution of beaten prefabricated piles.

Therefore, the requirements for this venture were very specific.

MANY CHALLENGES YET NEEDED TO BE OVERCOME IN THE

BUILDING OF THE NEW STRUCTURE

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 PROJECT REQUIREMENT

The project consisted in

LIST OF PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
constructing an extra-customized
bridge (of extra dosed type)
as an important portion of
the metropolitan ring road
Architects/ Main consulting engineers:
crossing the Tunis Lake Canal
Tunisian and Japanese design offices
and connecting the Southern
and Northern areas of the Grand
Client: Ministry of Equipment and Housing,
Tunis region, to connect Rads on

the North side and La Goulette
on the South side. The new
structure would replace the time-
consuming ferry services, hence
remove the ongoing navigational
obstruction and offer a bypass
option to reduce the traffic
congestion in the city. The
project was the first of its kind in
Tunisia and in the whole African
continent. The President of the
Tunisian Republic inaugurated it
on the March 21st, 2009.
In order to reach maximum
performance, the bridge would
display a very specific architecture
and design, only achievable by
the use of particular components and concrete techniques. Here the come.
CHALLENGES
Directorate General of Highways
Consulting engineers:
Nippon Koei
Pacific Consultant International (PCI)
Central Company for Land Equipment
Main Contractors:
Japanese Companies (TAISEI and KAJIMA) as
long as Tunisian ones
Egyptian companies (Arab contractors)
French companies (VSL for Cable Stays)
Many French design offices contributed to the
project such as SITES SAS for monitoring and
instrumentation.

The concrete structure was divided into three spans measuring respectively 70, 120 and 70 meters. The bridge
reinforced concrete deck, placed at 20 meters above sea level, was held by two pilars with a height of 45 meters.
With a width of 23.5 meters, the structure was divided into two channels measuring 3.5 meters each, two lanes
of emergency measuring 2 meters each, and a back fill measuring 2.5 meters.

Next to the bridge itself, two access structures were built: the North interchange consisted of caissons sunk
multiple curves on a hanger and the South bridge consisted of precast pre-stressed beams. The interchange,
connecting the bridge and the expressway Tunis-La Goulette had four bridges and several ramps and was the
most expensive project because it accounted for 42% of the overall cost and necessity of filling the 25 acres Lake
(400 000 sq embankments).

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 SIKA SOLUTIONS

Sika is the global technology and market leader in specialty chemicals for construction and industry, providing
complete systems and problem solutions for concrete production, waterproofing, roofing, flooring, sealing,
bonding, damping, grouting, reinforcing, concrete repair and protection, steel corrosion protection, structural
glazing and much more. This complete array of expertise appealed to the contractors to deal with the specific
technical challenges of this project.

SELF COMPACTING CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY
S elf Compacting Concrete (SCC) refers to the
concept of producing concrete that is extremely
fluid as well as cohesive. By using a particular range
of concrete admixtures, it is possible to produce a
concrete that is very easy and fast to pour and place
without vibration. The concrete moves effortlessly,
even through intricate formwork and dense
reinforcement, without bleeding or segregation. This
material has been mostly used as a special solution
SOLUTION
for bridge repairs or filling horizontal pipes. Its
properties allow cost optimization of your concrete
mix designs and produce increased concrete quality.
For the building of Rads-La Goulette Bridge, two
superplasticizers of the Self Compacting Concrete
were used: Sika ViscoCrete 5400 F for piles, footing
and pier, as well as Sika ViscoCrete Tempo 12 for
bridge deck and segment.

GROUTING OF GAPS AND BONDING/ANCHORING OF BUILT-IN PARTS

Several products were used to cope with the
protection and sealing of distinctive parts in the
bridge structure. On one hand, SikaGrout-212, a
cement based expanding grout, was used for pre-
stressing anchorage block at the level of bearing
machines. On the other hand, Sika Anchorfix-3,
a high-performance anchoring adhesive that can
be used for the fixing of non-expanding anchors,
was meant at repairing prefabricated piles. Finally,
Sikadur-30 an epoxy structural adhesive, was used
for anchoring steel bars and bolts for structural
steelwork.

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 PROJECT RESULTS

In March 2009,President Zine

The achieved objectives:
El Abidine Ben Ali inaugurated Creation of a continuous, fast and direct link between the
Rades- La Goulette Bridge. The two suburbs over the Tunis navigation canal: direct, fast (80
project became a milestone for km/h speed), non-stop (non-moving bridge), all-vehicle type
Tunisia infrastructure. More
mega projects are expected in
Tunisia so more jointwork and Completion of the express bypass link for the northern suburbs
cooperation are most welcome. near Le Kram and La Goulette.

Reduction of traffic on the southern access roads to the capital

and the crossing of Le Kram and La Goulette
RESULTS

Creation of a link between Rads-La Goulette ports and the

structuring road network

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