DOI: 10.1002 / bate.

201500013

Alberto Carlucci, Martin Hooton, Hj Mazlan Abd Salim, Sammy Yip, Kelvin Moneypenny, Steve Kite BERICHT

Temburong Bridge, Brunei – Design of two cable

stayed bridges
The Temburong Bridge Project is a 30 km long dual two-lane Temburong Brücke, Brunei – Entwurf von zwei
highway crossing over the Brunei Bay. It will connect the rela- Schrägkabelbrücken
tively isolated Brunei district of Temburong to the other three Die Temburong Brücke ist eine 30 km lange Verbindung über
Brunei districts. The main objective of the project is to stimu- die Brunei Bucht mit zwei Richtungsfahrbahnen mit je zwei
late economic growth in the Temburong region by connecting it Fahrstreifen. Sie wird den relativ isolierten Distrikt Temburong
to the country’s airport and ports. The alignment crosses two mit den anderen drei Distrikten Bruneis verbinden. Hauptanlie-
navigation channels resulting in the need for two cable stayed gen des Projekts ist die Stimulierung von ökonomischem
bridges – the Brunei Channel Bridge (145 m main span) and the Wachstum in der Temburong Region, indem sie an den Flugha-
Eastern Channel Bridge (260 m main span). fen und Seehafen des Landes angebunden wird. Die Trassie-
The design of these cable stayed bridges is one of the first ap- rung erfordert die Überquerung zweier Schiffahrtsrouten. Dies
plications of the Eurocode to a fully concrete cable stayed wird mit der Anordnung zweier Schrägkabelbrücken ermög-
bridge. Both cable stayed bridges draw on strong Islamic ar- licht, der Brunei Channel Brücke (145 m Hauptspannweite) und
chitectural influences from the region to form a tower shape der Eastern Channel Brücke (260 m Hauptspannweite).
that is unique and instantly recognisable. Die Bemessung der beiden Brücken stellt eine der ersten An-
wendungen des Eurocode auf Schrägkabelbrücken mit Beton-
überbau dar. Optisch sind die beiden Brücken geprägt von der
islamischen Architektur der Umgebung, die Pylonform ist ein
besonderes Erkennungsmerkmal der Brücken.

Keywords Cable stayed bridge; concrete ladder beam deck; sea crossing; Keywords Schrägkabelbrücke; Betonüberbau; Meeresüberquerung
Eurocodes

1 Introduction cable stayed bridges will be constructed, with main spans

of 145 m and 260 m respectively. These two cable stayed
The Brunei district of Temburong is separated from the bridges are the subject of this paper and are herein re-
other three Brunei districts by the Brunei Bay and ferred to as the Brunei Channel Bridge (BCB) and the
Malaysian state of Sarawak. The journey time between Eastern Channel Bridge (ECB).
Temburong and the rest of Brunei can take several hours
by road through Sarawak, else, the journey can be made
by boat across the Brunei Bay. This separation has limit- 2 Design Basis
ed the potential economic growth of Temburong com-
pared to the more prosperous Brunei-Muara district. Historically Brunei has adopted the British Standards
The Cadangan Projekt Jambatan Temburong (Tem- supplemented by local standards. As British Standards
burong Bridge Project) is a proposed 30  km long dual have been superseded by the Eurocode in the United
two-lane highway project to connect Temburong and Kingdom (UK), the Brunei authorities took the decision
Brunei-Muara, thus giving Temburong an economic to adopt the Eurocodes with the UK National Annex for
boost from direct highway access to the country’s airport the project. These standards are supplemented with proj-
and ports. The construction is planned for completion in ect and location specific requirements, in particular to
2018. take account of differences in climate and seismicity be-
tween Brunei and the UK.
The whole crossing comprises of a 14.6 km long marine
viaduct, 12  km long section of elevated structure over The following are the main loading parameters adopted:
peat swamp forest, 3 km of tunnel and several kilometres
of highway at grade. Further description of the project is − The highway loading is in accordance with BS EN
given in [1]. 1991-2 [2] and the UK National Annex. Load Model 1
and Load Model 3 – SV196 are both adopted.
There are two navigation channels along the marine sec- − Brunei is a tropical climate with small annual temper-
tion of the crossing – the 130 m wide Brunei Channel and ature ranges and high humidity. The design tempera-
the 235 m wide Eastern Channel. To cross these channels ture range is 15–40Co.

220 © Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin. Bautechnik 92 (2015), Heft 3
A. Carlucci, M. Hooton, H. M. A. Salim, S. Yip, K. Moneypenny, S. Kite: Temburong Brücke, Brunei – Entwurf von zwei Schrägkabelbrücken

BERICHT REPORT
The all concrete ladder beam deck is 37.2  m wide and
formed from longitudinal edge girders with transverse
cross beams at 4.15  m spacing. The stay cables are an-
chored into the edge girders. The edge girders and the
transverse cross beams are post-tensioned. The general
arrangement is illustrated in Fig. 2.

The main tower is a sculpted A-shape, 107 m tall, support-

ed on a group of 2.2 m diameter bored piles. Stay cable
saddles support the cables. The deck is monolithic with
the tower and the deck is supported on high damping
rubber bearings at the end piers which also support the
marine viaducts.

3.2 Eastern Channel Bridge

Despite a longer overall span and differences in width,

the Eastern Channel Bridge (ECB) is conceptually the
Fig. 1 Site Plan of Temburong Bridge Brunei Channel Bridge with two towers.
Lageplan der Temburong Brücke

The main span is 260  m with 130  m side spans. The

− Brunei is located just outside of the south-east Asian all concrete ladder beam deck is 30.2  m wide with a
region that is frequently hit by typhoons. Spikes in the transverse cross beam spacing of 4.9  m. The towers
wind speed records from regional anemometers indi- are of a similar form to the BCB tower, but slightly taller
cate that wind speeds are generally low, but higher at 110.5  m and slightly narrower to suit the deck
speeds are being recorded due to the action of thun- width.
derstorms. The 10-min mean wind speed of 26 m/s for
a 50-year return period is a consequence of such thun-
derstorm phenomena. 4 Parametric Analysis and Design
− The site is a region of low seismicity. The bridges are
founded on a thick layer of soft material (Eurocode The two cable stayed bridges show a similar architectur-
class type S) with spectral horizontal ground accelera- al language which reinforces the idea of two bridges
tion for a 975-year earthquake of up to 0.7 g. being part of the same infrastructure link. This has been
translated into common shapes and details, even though
the overall arrangement, span lengths and deck widths
3 General Description are different. The same structural system has been cho-
sen for both bridges and the similarity of the detailing
3.1 Brunei Channel Bridge and the geometry will have a positive impact for the
construction phase as, in the case the bridges will be
The Brunei Channel Bridge (BCB) is a single tower cable built in series, the same equipment can be used on one
stayed bridge with a 145  m navigation span and a sym- bridge might be re-adapted or even re-used for the erec-
metrical 145 m side span. tion of the other one.

Fig. 2 Brunei Channel Bridge General Arrangement

Übersicht Brunei Channel Brücke

Bautechnik 92 (2015), Heft 3 221

A. Carlucci, M. Hooton, H. M. A. Salim, S. Yip, K. Moneypenny, S. Kite: Temburong Bridge, Brunei – Design of two cable stayed bridges

Fig. 3 Eastern Channel Bridge General Arrangement

Übersicht Eastern Channel Brücke

Fig. 4 Structural analysis models for BCB (left) and ECB (right)
Computerberechnungsmodelle für BCB (links) und ECB (rechts)

Common structural features of the two bridges have led spacing of the crossbeams along the axis of the bridges
to an efficient design process. In fact, given the geometri- was chosen so that the same cross section and a similar
cal and conceptual similarities between the two bridges, a tendon arrangement (i.e. tendon number profile and
parametrical analysis of them resulted effective and led to types) can be adopted for both bridges. This explains why
an optimized design of both structures. A common data- the bridge with the wider deck (Brunei Channel Bridge)
base to both bridges was created through which, by only has the smaller spacing of crossbeams and vice-versa.
varying the few distinguishing geometrical variables of With this configuration the weight of one cast segment,
the two bridges, it was possible to generate the structural comprising two crossbeams is similar for the two struc-
modelling of them from a unique source. The common tures, and consequently similar erection equipment can
model generation was also tied with similar verification be used for both bridges.
tools adopted for both structures and this process helped
to improve the efficiency of the design process and re- Also the edge girders are longitudinally post tensioned
duce the total time spent on the design of both bridges. with the majority of tendons concentrated in the mid-
span regions where the maximum sagging moment oc-
curs. The same number and size of tendons (12 × 31
5 Deck Design strand tendons) are defined for both the mid-span region
of the Eastern Channel Bridge and for the Brunei Chan-
Both Eastern Channel Bridge and Brunei Channel Bridge nel Bridge spans. The tendons are curtailed to follow the
have a ladder beam deck that is cast in-situ in sequential shape of the bending moment envelope, but they are not
deck segments. The option selection process showed how present in the regions close to the tower where the axial
this deck choice at this span range is capable of satisfying force induced by the stay cables is sufficient to provide
the aesthetic requirement of a slender deck line with eco- the resistance of the girder.
nomical use of materials.
In parallel to having similar tendon arrangements, the
Crossbeams span between the edge girders at regular size of the edge girder is the same for both bridges, 2m
spacing and they are shaped with a T-section having the wide by 2.6m deep. The stays are anchored at the edge
sides slightly inclined to facilitate the removal and reuse girders in proximity to the connection with the cross-
of the formwork system during their casting. They are beams and the anchorage blocks of the stays lie within
post tensioned along their axis by typically two tendons the width of the edge girders in a clear attempt to make
per beam which are anchored at the deck edges. The the detail compact and functional.

222 Bautechnik 92 (2015), Heft 3

A. Carlucci, M. Hooton, H. M. A. Salim, S. Yip, K. Moneypenny, S. Kite: Temburong Brücke, Brunei – Entwurf von zwei Schrägkabelbrücken

BERICHT REPORT
Fig. 5 Brunei Channel Bridge Deck Cross Section
Brunei Channel Brücke Überbauquerschnitt

Fig. 6 Deck Stay Cable Anchorage Arrangement

Schrägkabelverankerungen am Überbau

Three-dimensional geometric coordination between the

crossbeam tendon anchorages, the stay anchorages and
the longitudinal edge girder tendon profiles was funda-
mental to the design of the edge beam. The area available
to place the longitudinal tendons was circumscribed from
the stay anchorages on one side, the crossbeams anchor-
ages at the top and at the bottom and from a required
minimum concrete cover on the other side to allow a
smooth bend out at the anchorage location.

As a result, the tendons are positioned closer to the cen-

troid of the girder than to the bottom surface but this,
rather than inconvenient, was a clear actuation of the Eu-
rocode design strategy. Fig. 7 Deck Edge Beam Section
Querschnitt Überbaulängsträger
In Eurocode 1992-2 [3] Section 7, for post tensioned con-
crete structures exposed to a marine environment, all ten-
dons under the Serviceability Limit State frequent combi- Limit State capacity checks both in service and, in partic-
nation shall remain within the compression zone with a ular, during construction.
margin equal to at least cmin,dur to the neutral axis, and
that for the same combination the crack width shall be Close to the tower, where there are not any tendons in
limited to 0.2 mm. In conjunction with the tuning of the the edge girders, the member can be considered in those
stay cables, positioning the tendons close to the centroid regions as ordinary reinforced concrete element and
of the section helped to satisfy the decompression re- therefore the durability crack width check has to be car-
quirement and it was found that their efficiency was im- ried out for the SLS Quasi Permanent combinations,
proved if, within the same combinations, the maximum which in accordance to the code do not include any traf-
tensile stress at the surfaces of the beam was kept below fic live load. As a consequence, in those regions where
the mean tensile strength of the concrete, fctm. In this there is a substantial axial compression due to the hori-
case, the code allows the designer to consider the section zontal component of the stay cable pre-stress forces, the
uncracked for the purpose of stress calculations, which sections are uncracked under the above combinations
implies that by remaining uncracked, the entire section is and so, again, the durability crack width requirement is
effective and the neutral axis is kept closer to the surface. automatically satisfied with the passive reinforcement
In addition, given that the section can be considered un- only governed by capacity requirements.
cracked, the required crack width check is automatically
satisfied and the demand of additional passive reinforce- The deck has a 250 mm thick slab which spans between
ment at the surfaces was mainly governed by the Ultimate the crossbeams and within the effective width acts in

Bautechnik 92 (2015), Heft 3 223

A. Carlucci, M. Hooton, H. M. A. Salim, S. Yip, K. Moneypenny, S. Kite: Temburong Bridge, Brunei – Design of two cable stayed bridges

Fig. 8 Tower Visualizations for BCB (left) and ECB (right)

Pylonvisualisierungen für BCB (links) und ECB (rechts)

composite action with the crossbeams in one direction tion level to the deck diaphragm, and then again up to the
and with the edge girders in the other. first stay saddle. Then the legs become solid so as to guar-
antee adequate material to resist the increasing localized
At their ends, the bridges have solid diaphragms sitting compression stresses at the stay cable locations. The re-
over the bearings and thus also acting as counterweight cessed upper tower infill provides the necessary stability
by eliminating undesirable bearing uplift. to the system being made up of two separate walls. The
cavity between them, in addition to making the structure
In both bridges the deck is integral at the towers through lighter and minimizing material use, provides also an in-
a torsionally resistant hollow box crossbeam which be- spection route from the hollow legs at deck level to the
comes a solid diaphragm at the tower joint. top of the tower where operational equipment is mount-
ed.

6 Tower Design
7 Stay cables and saddles
The tower is the unique element of this pair of cable
stayed bridges. It is inspired by Islamic architecture with The number of stay cables is an optimisation between the
the objective to be instantly recognizable. quantities of the stay cables and the quantities of pre-
stressing required within the deck. As a result of an opti-
The side legs have a curved tapering shape in the front misation study, twelve stay cables per fan were optimal
view from the deck, while they are linearly reducing in for ECB and 16 for BCB. The stay cables are placed in a
section when viewed from the side elevation. The side modified fan arrangement. At deck level, the spacing be-
faces of the tower, perpendicular to the bridge axis, are tween the first stay and the tower was maximised to ex-
slightly curved in a way to reduce the perception of its ploit the structural capacity of the deck girder, and to in-
mass and at the same time to be consistent with the curvi- crease the angle between the first stay and the tower,
linear architectural language. The tower legs are connect- which improved the aesthetics of that connection. Stay
ed above the deck with a recessed infill wall which termi- cables are anchored at alternate crossbeams so that there
nates with an Islamic arch. The arch is framed with a is one stay per edge girder in each segment.
ribbed feature that originates from the pile cap kicker
level and then tapers out reaching the maximum width at A multi-strand system is specified for the stay cables,
the crown of the arch. This element is strong with symbol- where each 15.7 mm diameter seven-wire strand is indi-
ism as each of the four ribs represents one of the four dis- vidually protected against corrosion by being encapsulat-
tricts of Brunei. Above the arch there is a long window ed in a tightly extruded HDPE cover along its length. This
slot in the infill wall, which allows sunlight to filter system has the significant benefit of allowing installation
through the tower and lighten the appearance of the front and tensioning of each strand, as well as individual strand
elevation. The four ribs and the slot above them signify removal and replacement. Both bridges have been de-
the unification of four districts into one by the project signed to allow replacement of an entire stay, as well as
bridge link. The symbols of the moon and the star mount- the accidental loss of a single stay cable.
ed on top of the tower are the crowning features.
During the design process, the determination of the stay
The apparent complex geometry of the tower was re- load factors in accordance with the Eurocode was not
solved structurally with relatively simple solutions and straightforward. In fact, depending on the stiffness of the
well established means of construction. The side legs are structure, references should be made to BS EN 1992-2 in
the primary structural elements of the tower, supporting the case of a stiff deck, and to BS EN 1993-1-11 [4] for a
the stay cables. They are characterised by a hollow sec- flexible deck, but there is no clear guidance in the code as
tion with constant wall thickness all round from founda- to determine to which category a structure belongs. A

224 Bautechnik 92 (2015), Heft 3

A. Carlucci, M. Hooton, H. M. A. Salim, S. Yip, K. Moneypenny, S. Kite: Temburong Brücke, Brunei – Entwurf von zwei Schrägkabelbrücken

BERICHT REPORT
Fig. 9 Tower Cross Sections: section along mid plane (left), side legs hollow section (centre), side legs solid section (right)
Pylonquerschnitte: Querschnitt in Pylonachse (links), Hohlquerschnitt (mitte), Vollquerschnitt (rechts)

comparative study of built structures that were clearly State in order to prevent a sudden slippage of the saddle
flexible was carried out. The conclusion was that a struc- in service.
ture can be considered flexible when the application of
the stay force to the final stage model was within the al-
lowable tolerance and resulted in a deflection more than 8 Construction
or equal to the allowable vertical deck tolerance, i.e. it
can be easily measured. Both Brunei bridges satisfied this For concrete deck cable stayed bridges, particularly those
rule and therefore the principles of EN1993-1-11 could be that adopt saddles in the tower, the construction sequenc-
applied. In accordance to section 5 of that code, (G+P) ing of the deck is critical to achieve an economical design
was taken as equal to Self Weight + Super-imposed Dead and stability during construction. The following construc-
Load + Creep + Shrinkage + Stay prestress, all measured tion sequence has been assumed in the design as no con-
and confirmed at the time of hand over by reference to tractor has been appointed at the time of writing.
the actual stay loads and the actual achieved deflections.
The (G+P) case was then factored at ULS with factors
1.35/0.95 (or better still with the weighted factors which 8.1 Tower construction
consider the different SDL factors in the UK NA) with
the residual creep and shrinkage from handover to time The tower construction sequence is conventional, but
infinite factored at ULS with factors 1.2/0.0. with additional complexities due to the shape of the tow-
ers. The tower legs can be cast in constant height lifts of
Saddles were chosen at the tower so as to avoid the approximately 4m with a jump-formwork system capable
need for an inspection access route throughout the full of adapting to the tapering cross section. The ribs on the
height of each tower leg, which would have been neces- inside of the legs form a constant sized feature within the
sary for an anchorage system. This resulted in more leg formwork to a point above deck level where the ribs
compact and aesthetical appealing towers. Modern cable start to grow in size. At this point the arch ribs are cast
saddles address the corrosion protection requirements of separately and the leg casting continues up the tower.
the stay cable system and do not limit the multi-strand ad- Due to the inward inclination of the tower legs, the two
vantage of individual strand replacement. Asymmetrical legs are connected with temporary horizontal struts at
frictional loads transferred to the tower are taken up regular intervals. These struts can also be used to assist
through the strand and the allowable magnitude of this the casting of the infill concrete wall that spans between
force was checked against the rather conservative the tower legs. Once the infill wall is cast between the
COULOMB friction formula reported in the section 6 of BS tower legs the final task is to cast the growing rib feature
EN 1993-1-11. above deck level.

  
F   
  8.2 Deck construction
max  Ed1   e  M,fr  (1)
 FEd 2 
A cast in-situ deck cycle was developed to avoid additional
Where FEd1 and FEd2 are the design values of the force re- materials to those required for the in-service condition of
spectively on either side of the saddle, μ is the coefficient the bridge. For both cable stayed bridges, the first portion
of friction between cable and saddle, α is the angle in ra- of the deck from the tower to the first stay is cast on false-
dians, of the cable passing over the saddle and γ is the work supported by the wide tower pile cap. For the further
partial factor for friction. segment casting a balanced cantilever erection cycle is pro-
posed. The sequence is that traveller forms are launched
Following the normal saddle design approach, a similar forward, simultaneously or sequentially, into position to
check was also introduced at the Serviceability Limit cast the new segments, then all segment reinforcement is

Bautechnik 92 (2015), Heft 3 225

A. Carlucci, M. Hooton, H. M. A. Salim, S. Yip, K. Moneypenny, S. Kite: Temburong Bridge, Brunei – Design of two cable stayed bridges

Fig. 10 Deck casting sequence

Ablauf Überbauherstellung

fixed and the cable stay anchors, stressing anchors and 9 Conclusions
ducts are installed. The stay cable is then installed and sub-
ject to a first stage of prestressing against the formwork. When built, the Brunei Bridges will be landmark and
Portion 1 (Figure 10) of the east and west segments are iconic structures for Brunei.
cast, and afterwards Portion 2, and in both cases simulta-
neously or sequentially. Finally the second stage of stress- The towers are the most recognizable elements and,
ing of the stay cable from both ends is performed after hav- whilst having an apparent complex geometry, they have
ing been released from the formwork system. been designed with conventional and well established
structural solutions and means of construction. The
This sequence will allow the contractor flexibility to cast bridges show evident similarities, both in the towers and
the two ends of the cantilevers independently and se- in the ladder beam decks, and this led to an improved de-
quentially on the condition that the cantilevers are not sign efficiency by adopting a parametric procedure of
out of balance by more than 50  % of the deck segment analysis while common detailing is expected to bring ben-
weight acting with the same lever arm. 100 % deck seg- efits during the construction.
ment out of balance was not possible as it resulted in an
uneconomical deck and tower, with greater likelihood of These bridges have been one of the first applications of
saddle slip during construction. The adoption of tempo- Eurocode to the design of a fully concrete cable stayed
rary buffeting cables between the deck and the tower pile bridge.
cap are assumed in the design for the following benefits:

− Reduction in wind buffeting response of the bridge 10 Acknowledgements

during construction, in particular at the maximum ex-
tent of the balanced cantilever construction; This paper has been published with the permission of the
− Reduction in the unbalanced bending moment in the Public Works Department, Ministry of Development, the
tower legs due to differential weight of cantilevers can Government of Brunei Darussalam.
be compensated with the prestress of the buffeting
cable.

Bibliography

[1] KITE S., YEE K.O., HUSSAIN N., CHIN K. K., YIP S., TO M.: Autoren:
Temburong Bridge, Brunei – A new 30 km road link. Alberto Carlucci, Senior Engineer;
IABSE Symposium Madrid 2014: Engineering for Progress, Martin Hooton, Associate;
Nature and People, September 2014 Kelvin Moneypenny, Senior Engineer;
Arup, 13 Fitzroy Street London W1T 4BQ United Kingdom
[2] BS EN 1991-2, Eurocode 1: Actions on structures – Part 2:
[email protected], [email protected],
Traffic loads on bridges, 2003
[email protected]
[3] BS EN 1992-2, Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures –
Part 2: Concrete bridges – Design and detailing rules, 2005 Sammy Yip, Associate;
[4] BS EN 1993-1-11, Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures – Steve Kite, Associate Director;
Part 1-11: Design of structures with tension components, Arup, Level 5 Festival Walk 80 Tat Chee Avenue Hong Kong
2006 [email protected] , [email protected]

Hj Mazlan Abd Salim, Senior Executive Engineer

Public Works Department
Brunei Darussalam
[email protected]

226 Bautechnik 92 (2015), Heft 3