We dressed the peaks of the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge that ties Europe and Asia at the north opening of the Bosphorus with FİBRO-M®. The form and building materials of the bridge were planned according to the wind loads at the location. The production, controls and assembly of the FİBRO-M® panels were realized with the highest technical engineering know-how.

This bridge was opened to traffic in 2016. Its towers are 322 meters high which makes it the which made it the highest suspension bridge in the world at the time.

“The production, controls and assembly of the FİBRO-M® panels were realized with the highest technical engineering know how.”

Large Scale Hybrid Geometries

The feet of the towers are in Garipçe and Poyrazköy on the European and Asian shores respectively. Each tower sits on a hexagonal base but becomes narrower toward the top, decreasing to form a square. The feet were cast in slipform and there are pulley systems on the feet that control the bridge’s carrier cables.

Our engineers developed the FİBRO-M® brand to cover the feet geometry of the bridge and the FİBRO-M® shells complement the towers geometry beautifully. The main objective of the tower architecture was to have the least amount of grout at the junction points. Each foot of the bridge was composed of 8 modules and each module was to have 10 precast FİBRO-M® panels. These panels had 3 different angles to unite at certain points. The production and controls of the panels required precision engineering and we were able to achieve a design with minimal grout at the junction points.

High Performance Light Panels

This material is a first in the Turkish construction sector. FİBRO-M® gave us the opportunity to complete the 25 meter long part between 297-322 meters with this thin, light but resistant material. This product is resistant to wind loads of 300 kg/square meter at this height. In the original plan, those 25 meters were to be dressed with heavy precast concrete which would make the tower cladding weigh 350 kg/ square meter. By using FİBRO-M®, the weight of the tower cladding dropped down to 110 kg/ square meter. This situation also had a positive impact on the steel structure as the main load bearing steel structure’s weight dropped from 350 tons to 160 tons. The towers’ concrete panels were attached to the previously assembled steel modules on the ground. We made a trial assembly between the towers at the location. We then dismantled the trial structure and prepared the final structure for its assembly on the tower. Consequently, the assembly time on the tower dropped down to only 20 days.