"Gazelle", the bridge which is crossed by almost 165,000 vehicles daily, is the busiest Belgrade bridge which connects the two banks of the Sava river. Thanks to its unusual construction, the bridge in profile resembles a running gazelle, hence the name "Gazelle". Its construction is a combination of beam and arc systems, it has no classical arc to be carried by, but it does not stand on pillars, which is a solution applied for the first time on this bridge. The construction of the bridge was performed by the enterprise "Mostogradnja" from Belgrade, in cooperation with "Goša" from Smederevska Palanka, and the bridge was solemnly opened on 4 December 1970. During the load testing of the bridge, for which the then Yugoslav National Army was engaged, there were on the bridge, according to the old chivalric custom – the main architect, professor of the Faculty of Construction Milan Đurić and the Belgrade mayor Branko Pešić. "Gazelle" is a combination of beam and arc, it is 332 m long, and 27.5 m wide. Total width of the driveway is 21.8 m. On one part of the bridge there are two pedestrian paths, each being 3 m wide. "Gazelle" rises 22.8 m above the Sava during the middle water-level.
The new Road and Railway Bridge in Novi Sad was built where "Žeželjev" bridge once stood – the road and railway bridge of concrete and arcs on the Danube river, between Novi Sad and Petrovaradin, built in 1961 and demolished during the NATO bombing on 23 April 1999. The main architect of the new bridge, engineer Aleksandar Bojović constructed the bridge which shares numerous common points with the original solution of engineer Žeželj. The new bridge has two railway tracks, two road tracks and two pedestrian paths; it leanes on five pillars and it consists of four simple beams of harnessed beam constructions with 27 m and 48 m spans and steel arc construsctions with 177 m and 219 m span, respectively. The driveway construction of all the spans is harnessed steel and concrete. This bridge is now 474 m long, 220 m of which belong to the big arc, 180 m to the small one, and there are also two access bridges – one, 48 m long, from the side of Novi Sad, the other 26 m long, from the side of Patrovaradin. The big arc bridge weighs 6.400 tons, and the small one 4.800 tons, while the width of the bridge is 31.60 m.
Artistic realization of the stamp: Academic painter Boban Savić, MA.
Expert collaboration: Dean of the Faculty of Construction Branko S. Božić, PhD.
