Vekarasalmi bridge, Sulkava

In Sulkava, South Savo, the Vekarasalmi Bridge is a continuous composite girder bridge. The award-winning bridge combines traditional water construction expertise with a restrained, aesthetic design solution. At approximately 640 meters in length, the bridge is among the longest in Finland. Its completion in 2019 significantly improved traffic flow, as it replaced the previous ferry connection. A-Insinöörit was responsible for the design of the bridge’s superstructure, relying on building information modeling methods. The superstructure is a composite girder structure consisting of two steel beams with varying structural heights and a reinforced concrete deck slab. Between the steel beams are cross-bracing and cross-beam structures. In the Saimaa ringed seal nesting area, bored piles were chosen as the foundation method to avoid blasting work.