Bridge construction and maintenance
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a lively and active place, in which the population moves daily in all directions of the Kingdom in order to fulfill their needs, work and education as every person has a job to do daily in addition to the tourists and visitors who come to the Kingdom in order to visit its landmarks and holy places. As for the difficulty of roads , travel and transfers , and in addition to the presence of mountainous roads that are difficult to walk , the Kingdom has built a group of wonderful bridges , some of which have turned into landmarks and tourist attractions, some of them were built in order to serve pilgrims and facilitate the process of stoning Jamarat, such as Jamarat Bridge that was built in Makkah and which was later included as one of the holy places in the Kingdom as it is used to perform a part of Hajj rituals . Also , there are bridges that were built in order to link the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Bahrain and facilitate movement between them, such as King Fahd Bridge which was built on the Gulf Sea and has facilitated movement and transfer between both kingdoms.
Functional Classification Of Bridges
Esnad Constructions Company builds and maintains bridges of all kinds
First, the bridge with beams
It is the most common with a beam that carries vertical loads by Bending , meaning that the beam is bent, it is subject to a horizontal pressure force at the top and at the same time it is subject to a horizontal tension force below. The piles transfer the loads by applying pressure perpendicular to the foundations.
This bridge is simple when it rests on two pillars only and it iscontinuous when it rests on more than two pillars.
Second, the truss bridge
A gable bridge is made of members connected to each other to form units in the form of a triangle, and it is similar to a simple beam bridge in the way of carrying vertical loads (by bending), where the bending leads to a compressive force in the upper tendons (or horizontal members), and a tensile force in the lower tendons, The tensile or compressive force is also in the vertical and diagonal members, and the nature of the force depends on the direction of these members.
Third, the arch bridge
This type is probably the oldest type of bridges as it carries the loads firstly through pressure and then transferred to the foundations with a vertical force and a horizontal force, so the foundations of this bridge must prevent horizontal movement (slipping) and vertical movement (landing). Despite the difficulty of designing the foundations of this bridge, the bridge structure itself requires less materials than the bridge with the same beams (the Span) . The arch is always under the arch bridge not over it
Fourth, the suspension bridge
This bridge carries vertical loads by means of tension cables, which transfer them to the towers, which transfer them by means of vertical pressure to the ground (which is a successive series to transfer the loads at the end to the ground) in order to maintain its balance. This type is similar to the arch bridge, but inverted.
Fifth, the Cantilever bridge
The cantilever bridge in its appearance resembles an arch bridge, and it generally consists of three seas. A cantilevered bridge transmits tensile loads in the upper tendons and by compression in the lower tendons. The inner towers transmit these pressure forces to the foundations, and then the outer towers transmit the tension forces to the distant foundations.
Sixth, Cable Stayed Bridge
Vertical loads are transferred from the main sea by tension cables . Piers transfer these forces to the foundations by means of vertical pressure. Do not forget that the tensile forces in the cables put the surface of the bridge in a horizontal pressure.
