Vessel Traffic Characteristics Analysis on the Cross-section of the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge at the Strait of Çanakkale

Abstract

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge is being built on two main towers using the suspension bridge technique. It is seen that the Europe Tower is located within the southern separation scheme and the Asia Tower is located outside the northern separation scheme. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the existing marine traffic on the cross-sectional line where the bridge towers are located and the possible effects of the bridge towers on the marine traffic. For these analyses Automatic Identification System (AIS) data of 2016 and the software program which was developed with intersection algorithm has been used. In the analyses, the axis of the bridge towers on the sea has been taken as a cross-section and divided into slots of 50 meters each. The ship distribution on the crosssectional line and relation of the vessel size and the preferred slots by the ships have been revealed.