Daelim Industrial and SK Engineering & Construction (SK E&C) said on June 15 that they have successfully completed the construction of the main tower of the Canakkale Bridge in Turkey, which is under construction as the world's longest suspension bridge.
SK E&C and Daelim Industrial began installing equipment supporting cables of the suspension bridge on the top of the tower on June 14. It has been about a year since the foundation of the tower was installed in May last year.
Suspension bridge is a bridge that connects the main tower and the main tower by cable and ties the top plate to the steel wire stretched vertically from the cable, and since it can secure the longest span among existing bridges, it has the highest level of difficulty in construction and design among the special bridge areas at sea.
The Canakkale Bridge is a four-lane bridge with a total length of 3,600 meters and a main span length of 2,023 meters, the distance between the main and main towers. The longer the main span of the suspension bridge, the higher the height of the tower.
The main tower of the Canakkale Bridge is a steel frame structure with 334 meters in height. It is the world's tallest steel tower, higher than the Eiffel Tower (320m) in France and the Tokyo Tower (333m) in Japan.
The Canakkale Project is a public-private partnership project with the BOT (Building, Operation and Transfer) method that builds and operates the world's longest 3.6km suspension bridge and 85km long connecting road and transfers it to the Turkish government.
It connects the Lapseki and Gelibolu areas of the Turkish state of Canakkale, which are divided between the Dardanelles Strait.
Daelim Industrial and SK E&C formed a consortium with two local Turkish companies in January 2017 to win the project after fierce competition with Japanese companies. The total cost of the project is about 3.5 trillion won ($2.9 billion).
It will participate as a project implementer as well as design, procurement and construction to guarantee operating profits after completion. The total project period is 16 years and two months, including the construction and operational period, and is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2021.
"Although we are facing a difficult situation due to COVID-19, Korean engineers have successfully completed the world's tallest tower with Korean technology and materials. We will do our best to build the world's longest suspension bridge, which will become Turkey's landmark, with the best quality, to become a successful model for the global developer project through cooperation between domestic construction companies," said an official from the consortium of SK E&C and Daelim Industrial.
