Preliminary Design of a Cable-Stayed Bridge

Preliminary Design of a Cable-Stayed Bridge This master thesis has the objective to investigate from an economic and a technical perspective the design of a new pedestrian bridge across the Hudson River, between Manhattan and Hoboken. Three design alternatives were analyzed considering economics, constructability, environmental impact and maintenance. The cable-stayed bridge was identified to best serve the design challenges. The main challenge was found to be the geometry of the bridge, extremely narrow and long, as consequence, the preliminary design was driven by the dynamic analysis and the need to decouple the vertical and the torsional mode. In the second part of the research both an economic and financial analysis are performed, to better understand the benefit and cost that this infrastructure would bring to the community and the monetary return for a possible private investor. Moreover, an investment strategy is proposed to prove how would be possible to finance the bridge through a Public-Private-Partnership.