Another Tourist Attraction
GS Engineering & Construction Co. (GS E&C) announced that the construction of Noryang Bridge, which connects Namhae County and Hadong County in South Gyeongsang Province, has been completed after nine years and is finally open to public on September 13.
GS E&C completed the world's first suspension bridge with inclined main towers with purely in-house technology.
Noryang Bridge is part of the "Kohyeon-Hadong IC2 National Highway Construction Project," which aims to connect the 3.1 km span between Deoksin-li, Sulcheon-myeon of Namhae County to Norayng-li, Geumnam-myeon of Hadong Country in South Gyeongsang Province. It is the world's first suspension bridge with an inclined main tower built with domestic technology, and it becomes the third longest bridge in Korea, following Yi Sun-sin bridge (1,545m) and Ulsan Bridge (1,150m).
Noryang Bridge is the site of the Battle of Noryang, and V-shaped inclination main towers was applied for the first time in the world to honor the victory of Gen. Yi Sun-sin. In addition, main towers and cables that symbolize the image of a bird with wings wide open were applied with a motive of the Gen. Yi Sun-sin’s Hakik-jin strategy. Norayng Bridge was designed to be an eco-friendly bridge that prevents the marine ecosystem destruction in the clean area adjacent to the Hallyeo Sea National Park with the main towers on the land.
In particular, the height of the main towers was built with an inclination of 8 degrees. As a result, it reduced the tension of main cable compared to a vertical main tower, reducing the size of the anchorage, which is the structure supporting the cable, by 11% and also reduced the distance between cable and anchorage by 15m, achieving scenery and economic feasibility at once.
The application of 3D cable to Noryang Bridge by GS E&C was world’s first application to suspension bridge. Two main cables connecting main towers with the suspension bridge are normally arranged parallel to the plane, but the cables of Noryang Bridge were arranged in a 3D streamlined shape to increase wind resistance to better withstand the wind.
By applying the infrastructure VDC platform during the construction, GS E&C conducted a virtual construction simulation to assess intervention, equipment, workers, and entrance route of temporary facility before the actual construction to improve the workability and safety by preventing the risk beforehand.