The Malabadi Bridge, located in the Silvan district of Diyarbakır, was built in 1147 during the Artuqid Dynasty. The bridge is 7 meters wide and 150 meters long, with an arch span of 40.86 meters and a height of 19 meters from the water level to the keystone. Among stone bridges worldwide, Malabadi Bridge holds the distinction of having the widest arch span.
The construction of such a structure with this span—at a time when modern structural analysis did not exist—continues to inspire admiration even today. In addition, in his travelogue, Evliya Çelebi states that the dome of Hagia Sophia could comfortably fit beneath the arch of the bridge, noting that there is no other bridge of this age and span in the Balkans, Türkiye, or the Middle East.
As part of the restoration project, our company carried out the fabrication and installation of the steel construction scaffolding system for the historic bridge. Although the manufacturing technique was conventional, the installation method was remarkable: the entire steel structure was floated on the Batman River, and by opening and closing the spillway gates of the Batman Dam, the buoyant force of the water was utilized to complete the assembly. One of the most notable aspects of this project—where approximately 400 tons of steel were fabricated—was that no cranes were used at any stage of the installation.
