On 21 May 2020, employees of the Faculty of Civil Engineering University of Mostar in cooperation with the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy University of Split completed load testing of the Sava interstate bridge over the river of the same name, which is an integral part of the international Pan-European road corridor 5C Budapest - Beli Manastir - Osijek - Sarajevo - Ploče. The bridge over the Sava River is also a contact point of the motorway networks of the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The length of the bridge is 660 m, and the total width of the bridge is 29 m. Three 3.50 m wide lanes are constructed for each direction, without an emergency lane, with protective strips of 0.5 m on both sides, and a concrete monolithic footpath 0.75 m in width. The bridge is a composite structure over seven spans (70.0 + 85.0 + 100.0 + 130.0 + 100.0 + 85.0 + 70.0 m). In cross section, the bridge consists of an open steel box and reinforced concrete deck slab. The bridge design was developed by the company "IPZ" Zagreb, and the company Hering d.d. Široki Brijeg was responsible for construction of the bridge.
After preparations in the laboratory of the Faculty and installation of measuring instruments on the bridge structure, load testing of both the left and right bridge was carried out in two days. From 8 to a maximum of 12 trucks weighing about 400 kN were used as the test load. They were positioned in different load schemes in order to obtain the maximum impact on the bridge structure.
The participants in the testing from the Faculty of Civil Engineering University of Mostar were:
Mladen Glibić, Ph.D., test supervisor;
Mladen Kustura, Ph.D.;
Marino Jurišić, M.Sc., and
Željko Mikulić, B.S.C.E.
From the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy
University of Split, the participants were:
Alen Harapin, Ph.D., test coordinator, and
Nikola Grgić, Ph.D.
