Sustainable concrete arch bridges

One of the most important aspects of sustainable development in the field of civil engineering is strategic planning and management of structures. Understanding various damaging effects of aggressive environment on structures and vice-versa plays an essential role in assuring sustainable construction. The paper discusses issues regarding sustainable design and construction of bridges, using in-service performance of large concrete arch bridges located at Croatian Adriatic Coast (Sibenik, Pag, Krk, Maslenica and Skradin Bridges) as benchmark. The most famous among the bridges addressed in the paper is the Krk Bridge as the largest conventional reinforced concrete arch structure in the world. Many problems and deficiencies were encountered during the lifetime of Sibenik, Pag and Krk Bridges, resulting in huge, complex and expensive repair works. Lessons learned from their performance in service were adopted in the design of more recent Maslenica and Skradin Bridges