The New Rewa River Bridge crosses the Rewa River just downstream of the old steel truss girder bridge at Nausori, a busy market town located 15km north west of Suva, the capital of Fiji. The new bridge was opened to traffic by the President of Fiji in August 2006 and is the longest bridge of its type in the South Pacific. It carries a dual two-lane carriageway with wide footways, and provides a much needed improvement in access to Nausori town and to the island’s second airport.
The new bridge has an overall length of 425m, comprising seven internal spans of 49.5m and end spans of 39.25m. The post tensioned concrete box girder superstructure was constructed from the west (Suva) side of the river using the incremental push launch method. The wide single cell box girder is post tensioned longitudinally for launch conditions and live loading, and is transversely prestressed in the top slab to eliminate the need for an internal web.
The paper describes the construction of the bridge and gives details of the bottom driven steel tubular pile foundations, the proprietary launch bearings, and the launch method, which were key features of the contractor’s alternative tender.
The project was co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the Government of Fiji.
Roger Buckby, MSc, CEng, FIStructE, MICE, FIHT
Halcrow Group Ltd, UK
David Phillips, BSc, MSc, CEng, MICE, MIStructE
Halcrow Group Ltd, Fiji
Mark Essam, BSc, MEng
Halcrow Group Ltd, Fiji
Ruwan Sahabandu, BSc(Eng), PG Dip (Hyd), MSc(Struct), MIE(SL), CEng
Ministry of Works and Energy, Fiji