Top of Ada Bridge Pylon to Be Set Up in 2024 – Modern City Symbol to Also Be Renamed?

The setting up of the top of the pylon on the Ada Bridge, which has been waited for ever since this bridge on the Sava opened for traffic a decade ago, should take place in 2024.

The city budget rebalance envisages RSD 24 million for this, as said, capital expenditure.

The only attempt for a seven-meter dome to be mounted on the Ada Bridge took place in May 2012 with the help of a helicopter of the Serbian Armed Forces, but it was unsuccessful due to a strong wind. It blew at nine kilometers per hour, which prevented the people inside the pylon from successfully picking up the finishing element. Although the attempt was supposed to be repeated on the first occasion the weather conditions allowed for it, it has not happened to this day. Several years ago, the idea was reinitiated, but the Belgrade Land Development Public Agency said at the time that “it will not be mounted, because it is not encompassed by the construction permit”.

The Ada Bridge pylon is 200 meters tall, and it rests on a foundation of 113 piles and at a depth of 30 meters. A total of 1,300 tons of reinforcement and over 16,000 cubic meters of concrete was built into it. It is assembled from three parts, and the final segment of nine and a half meters was installed in September 2011, whose diameter at the top is only a meter and a half. However, in order for this structure to be exactly as the architects planned, a “roof” of seven meters is also required.

The missing top is a conical grid made of stainless steel. It has no structural role and is an architectural element. It consists of eight pipes, mutually connected by rings at each meter. The element features a servicing ladder, which would be used by workers for maintaining the electrical equipment at the top.

The Ada Bridge officially opened for traffic during New Year’s Eve. In the first hours of 2012, cars passed from the Cukarica side to the New Belgrade side of the Sava. This structure is 964 meters long and 45 meters wide, has six traffic lanes, two tram tracks and two lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. The structure is meant to be part of the interior main ring road (UMP) around Belgrade, connecting Rakovica and New Belgrade.

The bridge was built based on the design which won first prize at the international architectural contest in 2004. The preliminary design was prepared by the Slovenian company Ponting, and the designers of the bridge are the constructor Viktor Markelj and the architect Peter Gabrijelcic. The expert jury, presided over by Nikola Hajdin, the then president of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the designer of the New Railway Bridge in Belgrade, unanimously pronounced the winner. The construction started in late 2008 and lasted three years.

The mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Sapic, recently announced that the Ada Bridge could be renamed.

When the current name was being chosen, citizens were sending their propositions and it was the “Most na Adi” (“Ada Bridge”) name that got the most votes. Other options included Harfa (The Harp), Pavlov Most (Pavle’s Bridge), Most Zorana Djindjica (Zoran Djindjic Bridge), Lepeza (The Fan)…

Grad Beograd

SANU Beograd

Ponting Inženirski biro d.o.o Maribor

City of Belgrade

Ponting

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Aleksandar Šapić

Nikola Hajdin

Viktor Markelj

Peter Gabrijelčič

Ada Bridge

pylon

pylon dome

mounting pylon dome

new Ada Bridge name

Belgrade city budget rebalance