Daelim and SK Reveal Image of 'World's Longest Suspension Bridge' Being Built in Turkey

Daelim Industrial announced on the 15th that it has successfully completed the construction of the main tower of the ?anakkale Bridge in Turkey.

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] Daelim Industrial and SK Engineering & Construction are gradually revealing the appearance of the world's longest suspension bridge currently under construction in Turkey.

Daelim Industrial announced on the 15th that it has successfully completed the construction of the main towers of the ?anakkale Bridge in Turkey. It took about a year since the installation of the tower foundations in May last year. Since the 14th, work has begun to install equipment supporting the suspension bridge cables at the top of the main towers.

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge where the main towers are connected by cables, and the deck is hung vertically from the cables by steel wires. It can secure the longest span among existing bridges. A Daelim Industrial official explained, "It is known to be the most technically challenging in terms of construction and design among special marine bridges."

The ?anakkale Bridge has a total length of 3,600 meters with four lanes in both directions, and the main span?the distance between the main towers?is 2,023 meters. As the main span of a suspension bridge increases, the height of the towers also increases. The main towers of the ?anakkale Bridge are steel structures standing 334 meters tall. Currently, they are the tallest steel towers in the world, taller than France's Eiffel Tower (320m) and Japan's Tokyo Tower (333m).

The main towers of the ?anakkale Bridge are constructed by stacking hollow square box-shaped blocks like Lego blocks. The blocks were fabricated on-site using steel plates produced domestically. The weight of the blocks varies from 195 tons to 850 tons. The thickness of the towers becomes thinner as they go higher. Accordingly, the width of the bottom block installed just above the tower foundation is 11 meters, and the width at the highest point is 8 meters. Each tower consists of 64 blocks, with a total weight of about 18,000 tons. SK Engineering & Construction and Daelim Industrial plan to carry out the cable installation work connecting the main towers, which is the most critical process in the suspension bridge construction.

Meanwhile, the ?anakkale project primarily aims to connect the Lapseki and Gelibolu regions of ?anakkale Province in Turkey, separated by the Dardanelles Strait. In January 2017, Daelim Industrial and SK Engineering & Construction formed a consortium with two local Turkish companies and won the project after fierce competition with a Japanese firm. The total project cost is approximately 3.5 trillion KRW. They are participating not only in design, procurement, and construction but also as project operators, guaranteeing operational revenue after completion. The total project period, including construction and operation, is 16 years and 2 months, with completion scheduled for the second half of 2021.

A representative of the SK Engineering & Construction and Daelim Industrial consortium said, "Despite the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean engineers have successfully completed the world's tallest towers using Korean technology and materials," adding, "We will do our best to complete the world's longest suspension bridge, which will become a landmark in Turkey, with the highest quality and to serve as a successful model of a global developer project through cooperation among domestic construction companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.