The talk “An Innovative Floating Bridge for the Norwegian E39 Project” was given by Professor William C. Webster on 5 August 2023 at the Deep-Blue Forum at Harbin Engineering University.

Norway is planning to build a high-speed highway along its west coast. To build this highway, a number of bridges and tunnels are needed to span the many inlets and fjords along the way. One such location is BjØrnafjorden, a fjord close to the city of Bergen. The needed span is about 5 km across and the water is about 500m deep, and the site is subject to high winds, waves of up to 5m high and currents of up to 2 knots. The great length of the crossing and depth of the water makes the usual bridge solution, a suspension bridge, not feasible. After considering several alternatives, the selected design is a pontoon supported floating bridge. This bridge requires the development of new techniques both for design and construction. It is anticipated to be finished in about 2030.