LOCAL ARCH BRIDGES IN THE PHILIPPINES

TALIM BRIDGE(BINANGONAN, RIZAL)

Talim Island is the largest lake island in Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the
Philippines. The hilly island is within the boundaries of the Province of Rizal, under the
jurisdiction of two municipalities. The western side is part of the municipality
of Binangonan, while the eastern section is part of Cardona.
The island is volcanic in origin and forms the southwest rim of the Laguna
Caldera. Volcanism after the formation of the caldera created the maars and volcanic
craters at the southern end of Talim Island,the largest of which is a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi)
crater surrounding Brgys. Balibago and Tuna.
BAMBAN BRIDGE (PAMPANGA, PHILIPPINES)
Crossing the Sacobia-Bamban River system is the Bamban Bridge along the
MacArthur Highway between Mabalacat, Pampanga and Bamban, Tarlac. This Nielsen-
Lohse basket arch bridge is one of the most modern and sleek-looking bridges in the
country.
The original Bamban Bridge was destroyed in 1991 when Pinatubo erupted,
cutting off vital transportation routes since MacArthur Highway is the major link between
northern Luzon and Manila. Various other bridges were erected in place soon after but
each one was washed away too, forcing some Baguio vacationers from Manila to take
the Concepcion, Tarlac route.
The bridges arch has a span of 174 meters and contains 1,400 tons of steel. It is
one of the longest bridges of its type in the world and was completed sometime around
1998. It is quite a landmark in an area devastated by Pinatubos eruption.
LOCATION: Pampanga, Philippines
TYPE: Basket-Handle Nielsen-Lohse arch bridge
LENGTH: 174 meters
OWNER: Department of Public Works and
Highways (DPWH), Philippines

As construction of this bridge had to be completed asquickly as possible to

restore the transportation system of Luzon Island, various special techniques were
applied to its structure with the aim of reducing the construction period.
The superstructure is designed to reduce the number of members and welds
for labor-saving purpose. For example, as for arch rib, spacing of stiffener
was changed 1.6 to 3 times wider than ordinal design, and no stiffener
(normally 1 to 3) is used on the stiffening girders conforming to American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
standards
Precast reinforced concrete slab was used to construct the bridge floor
system so as to minimize moulding and bar arrangement works at the
building site.
For coating of the bridge, a paint system requiring a smaller number of layers
was selected: two layers consisting of organic zinc paint and modified epoxy
resin paint for the external surfaces (75 + 120 ), and a single layer of
epoxy resin paint for the internal surfaces (240 ). Weathering steels were
used for floor framing to eliminate painting work