Žeželj Bridge ( sr, Жежељев мост, Žeželjev most) is a

tied-arch bridge A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward horizontal forces of the arch(es) caused by tension at the arch ends to a foundation are countered by equal tension of its own gravity plus any element of the total deck structure such grea ...

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

river in

Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the P ...

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

. The bridge was originally built in 1961, only to be destroyed during the 1999

NATO bombing of Yugoslavia The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

. The newly constructed bridge was opened in 2018.

History

The original Žeželj Bridge (377 meters long) was a

through arch bridge A through arch bridge, also known as a through-type arch bridge, is a bridge that is made from materials such as steel or reinforced concrete, in which the base of an arch structure is below the deck but the top rises above it. It can either be lo ...

built between 1957 and 1961. It was designed by the prominent Yugoslavian civil engineer Branko Žeželj and constructed by

Mostogradnja Mostogradnja (''Građevinsko preduzeće Mostogradnja a.d. Beograd'') is a Serbian bridge building company, with headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia. Its projects have included bridges and interchanges, as well as industrial and military structures i ...

. It connected the city area of

and

Petrovaradin Petrovaradin ( sr-cyr, Петроварадин, ) is a historic town in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, now a part of the city of Novi Sad. As of 2011, the urban area has 14,810 inhabitants. Lying on the right bank of the Danube, across from t ...

. During its existence, it served as part of an international railway line and as a transit road through Novi Sad. During the

, the bridge was bombed 12 times. On 23 April 1999, it was finally destroyed, cutting railway transport between Belgrade and Subotica, i.e. Serbia and Hungary. During the NATO bombing, all three large bridges on Danube river in Novi Sad (Žeželj Bridge,

Varadin Bridge Varadin Bridge () is a bridge on the Danube river in Novi Sad, Serbia. The bridge was built in 2000, after the previous bridge (Marshal Tito Bridge, renamed Varadin Bridge in 1991) at this location was destroyed during NATO bombardment A bo ...

and Liberty Bridge) were completely destroyed. In 2000, a temporary Road–Railway Bridge was constructed near the Žeželj Bridge to serve as a replacement of Žeželj Bridge until the new one was constructed. Over the years, the construction of the new Žeželj Bridge was postponed several times. In April 2012, the construction works for the new bridge in the same place officially started. The main designer of the new bridge was Aleksandar Bojović, while the contractor was an international consortium, JV Azvi - Taddei – Horta Coslada. The new bridge is visually similar to the destroyed bridge, except that the arches are made from steel and not

prestressed concrete Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially "prestressed" ( compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-tensioned concreted i ...

. The bridge consists of two arches, the larger one being long and high and the smaller one long and high. In October 2017, the arches of Žeželj Bridge were connected after five years of construction and eighteen years after the previous bridge was destroyed. As of October 2017, the construction works cost was 51.71 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. In April 2018, the bridge was completed and regular rail transport established. The vehicle transit was established on 1 September 2018.

References

External links

Žeželj Bridge
at structurae.net Bridges in Novi Sad Buildings and structures in Novi Sad Bridges completed in 2018 Bridges over the Danube 2018 establishments in Serbia Rebuilt buildings and structures in Serbia Buildings and structures in Vojvodina Bridges in Serbia {{Serbia-bridge-struct-stub

History

See also

References

External links