<p>Managing Contractor has carried out the design of the replacement of the existing cables stays at Ewijk Bridge. Replacement of the existing cables is one component of the renovation works necessary to extend the design life of this large steel bridge by at least 30 years.</p>
As part of a major renovation programme of critical highway infrastructure in the Netherlands, the
Tacitus Bridge at Ewijk, a 1055-metre-long orthotropic steel box girder deck of ten spans, with a
main cable-stayed span of 270 metres, has undergone extensive strengthening and refurbishment.
Due to the presence of micro-fissure defects identified in the existing lock coiled stay cables and an
increase in permanent load on the bridge deck resulting from the addition of a high strength
concrete overlay acting compositely with the orthotropic steel deck, it was concluded that the
existing stay cables needed replacement. This paper presents the analytical approach developed to
verify that the existing stay cables could be removed with no additional temporary supports and the
use of advanced non-linear techniques to predict and monitor the performance of the bridge during
each step of destressing the existing stay cables and of tensioning the new parallel strand cables.
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