Design philosophy of floating bridges with emphasis on ways to ensure long life

The paper briefly outlines current design philosophies for floating bridges, with special reference to aspects that are deemed to be of interest in the context of very large floating structures. Since the design of submerged floating tunnels is done by people in the same milieu and deals with many of the same problems as in the design of floating bridges, while being in some respects more critical, some of the design philosophy of that subject is also included. The design philosophy and methodology for floating and submerged tunnel bridges draws heavily on Norwegian experiences in two large fields: offshore structures and conventional bridges.