|
REHABILITATION
OF THE OLD BRIDGE MOSTAR |
|
NEWSLETTER 2 AUGUST 29,2002
|
The site and the
The site, where
the Old Bridge of Mostar was located, is in the most ancient core of the
town, and on both banks of the river there are ancient stone buildings in the
typical architecture style of the place, influenced by the Ottomans. The
river Neretva is quite lower than the adjacent
streets leading to the bridge, being the average river level at m.42 (a.s.l.), the average riverbed level at m.38 (a.s.l.) and the average street level at m.55 (a.s.l.). River banks, composed of natural conglomerate
rocks, are quite steep: this happen mostly on the east side, where masonry
stone walls of the buildings and rocks, (on which they are founded), make a
sort of vertical barrier to the river flows. The river Neretva runs from north to south and, 100-150 metres
before the bridge site, the riverbed gets suddenly smaller and makes a turn
which leads the flows more towards the east bank. Most probably
the site for the bridge has been chosen, in the ancient times, because it was
the most narrow point in the area where it was
possible to cross the river, and because of the high and stable rocks located
on both banks. But being, in that spot, the riverbed of
smaller size, like in a funnel, the flows get faster, stronger and
higher, enough to cause frequent damages to the abutment walls and to
threaten with the buildings at the street level. This is the reason why the
old bridge steep flooring, (about 20%), was higher than the adjacent streets
level: to avoid river water thrust during the floods. The
accessibility to the site is quite limited by the narrow streets, (ulica Kujundziluk by the east
side and ulica Oneskukova
by the west side); residential buildings, being located by the river banks,
have their entrance doors by the street side and do not even allow, close to
the bridge, the visibility of the river and of the surroundings. The river Neretva has got a torrential regime and its waters get
easily and suddenly strong and high even during one |
single daytime. River water levels,
anyhow are very much influenced by the seasons: during the dry season it is possible
to see the rocks along both of the banks and to see the foundation levels of
the abutment walls. While during floods the river may reach very high levels,
and even in recent times, it has been possible to observe the river so high
to cause damages to the houses located by the banks. In January 2000 a flood
caused the collapse of the temporary gangway, (footpath), located
approximately at the adjacent streets level, and many other damages, (among
which the collapse of the Kriva Kuprija
bridge). The riverbed, immediately after the Old Bridge crossing spot, gets much wider and the Neretva receives its tributary: the river Radobolja; moreover, many other small rivulets fall in the Neretva along the site mostly from the west side before the bridge. In the spot where
the bridge used to cross the river, founded over the rocks, two huge masonry
structures rise: they are wedge shaped to face the river flows and they are
supposed to work like a funnel. On the top of them there are located some
small buildings, and other fortification structures, among which the two
facing towers Halebija and Tara on the opposite
banks, characterise the whole area with their peculiar shape, which is flat
towards the river and round towards the territory. The whole appear
to be castled, narrow and perfectly inserted in the morphology of the site:
masonry structures are not only founded over the rocks, but they are actually
winding the ground and they prosecute, either upstream, either
downstream, melting with the river-rocky-banks. At the top, the abutment
walls, with no discontinuities and no decorative elements, sometime become
the elevations of the residential buildings with small windows and with the
typical stone roofs. Vegetation
groves everywhere: rocks and walls are covered by green bushes and leaves: it
is difficult to understand where the nature ends and the stone structure
starts, being the walls built in tenelija stone and
in natural conglomerate like the rocks.
|
|
THE TECHNICAL MEETINGS Until the and of August we had ten official technical meetings.
They are held mostly in Supervisors premises. The standard participants are: -
PCU -
Technical
Assistance -
UNESCO -
Supervisor -
Contractor f required, the guests in these meetings
are also the experts from different areas ( Power Plants, City Waters, etc),
previous Contractors (General Engineering, LGA, etc) the subcontractors, and
all other necessary persons and institutions.
Technical
meeting No 3
Technical
meeting No 3
Technical
meeting No 3 We started with
scaffolding on west downstream wall (M5c, M5b, M5a), the upstream wall on the
same bank followed (M3b, M3a),
then we crossed the river and finished the left bank M4 upstream wall. Now we
are making the preparations to erect the scaffolding on the two remaining
walls on the downstream east side (M6 and M9). In the mean
time, our workers started with cleaning of the joints on these walls. That
item is very important for the injection works which will start soon. After
this cleaning job, damaged stones will be repaired or changed for new ones if
required, and then the joints will be re-pointed. When the surface of the
walls is solid enough, the injection works will follow.
DRILLINGS FOR THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CRANE After determining the best possible position for
placing the main crane, we had to investigate if the soil under is strong
enough to carry the weight Drilling machine Hole on the upper part of the rock.
On four concrete
blocks, the wooden deck will be installed as the base for the trails of the
crane POTAIN GMRT 486 A, with range 50m, max weight 1.3 tons at the end of
the boom.
LABORATORY TESTING OF THE
MATERIALS
|
THE SCAFFOLDINGS On 12.07.2002 we
started with the erection of the scaffolding for the side walls. This
scaffolding is necessary for the reparation works on these walls. The scaffolding
on M5 Drilling results No 1 Drilling results No 2
Drilling results No 3
Drilling results No 4 So, four deep drills were made on
spots were the crane foundations were supposed to be established. The approximate depth of the holes was 6
meters. As the pictures are showing, the
results of these tests were satisfying, the soil is strong enough, and the
production of the foundations already started!
TRADITIONAL 436. DIVES
FROM THE On Sunday,
24.08.2002, the 436. traditional dives from the |
This NEWSLETTER was made in accordance with prevailing articles of the
Contract No 002/2002 about the Rehabilitation of the