The New Svinesund Bridge between Norway and Sweden will be opened in 2005 and will be the world's largest single-arched bridge. It will form part of the European highway E6. The main span of the bridge is approximately 247m long and consists of a single reinforced concrete arch, which carries a multiple-cell steel box girder. The arch has a rectangular hollow cross-section that tapers from the abutment to the crown. The construction of the arch uses a climbing formwork and is done in parallel on the Norwegian and Swedish sides. A monitoring programme was set up to monitor the structural behaviour of the bridge. The instrumentation of the arch is composed of vibrating-wire strain gauges, resistance strain gauges, linear servo accelerometers, and temperature gauges. Early results from the monitoring equipment are presented.
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