Abstract

The Danube River is an international waterway flowing 2860 km across Europe from the heights of the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) down to the Black Sea delta. In its passage, the second longest European river crosses 22 geographical meridians, joining 10 countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine. The Danube drainage basin extends into nine more countries. The International Conference on Bridges in Danube Basin has become a traditional international event in bridge engineering, initiated by Prof. Miklos Ivanyi and organized periodically each third year in different Danube countries: 1992 on a ship, sailing on the Danube from Vienna via Bratislava to Budapest, 1995 in Bucharest, 1998 in Regensburg, 2001 in Bratislava, 2004 in Novi Sad, 2007 in Budapest, 2010 in Sofia and 2013 in Timisoara and Belgrade. The Ninth International Conference on Bridges in Danube Basin takes place in A…A½ilina in September 2016, aiming to analyse present trends in bridge construction in every Danube country. The general goal of the Conference is the overall exchange of knowledge and experience between different institutions, owners, contractors, bridge designers and constructors, as well as scientific experts. The selected papers to be presented at the Conference are mainly related to the bridges across the Danube and its tributaries, i.e. to the bridges in Danube Basin. The Conference also aims to promote advances in bridge engineering.