Construction and maintenance of two cable stayed bridges in adverse environment

This paper deals with the construction and maintenance of two large cable-stayed bridges opened in 1991. Skarnsundet bridge is at present the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, 530 m span, Helgeland bridge has a span of 425 meters. Both bridges are located relatively close together at the coast, in the middle of Norway. These bridges are consequently subjected to severe marine environments, high winds, saltspray and temperature differences. This is especially true for Helgeland bridge, where winter conditions are particularly severe. These bridges replace the previous ferry connections, the traffic being less than 1000 vehicles per day only called for two lanes. The bridges with their long spans are therefore very slender giving good reasons for close following up of maintenance. Both bridges were partly financed by road toll.