minimizing distortion | pnu’s apm unsymmetrical beams The day King Abdullah Bin AbdulAziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, inaugurated the Princess Nora Bint AbdulRahman University (PNU), he rode the Automated People Mover (APM) demand-responsive transport system designed to take students around the 800-ha campus safely, securely and with the least strain on the environment. PNU, east of Al-Riyadh, is the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to advance education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Completed in a record breaking two and a half years covering design and construction – the King himself laid the foundation stone on the 29th of Shawwal, 1429 (October 30th, 2008), just as he was the one to inaugurate the campus on the 12th of Jumada II, 1432 (May 15th, 2012). The driverless dual-track APM transit system running smoothly and quietly on continuously welded steel rails is PNU’s center piece. Visible from all areas of campus, it rises on a pre-tension C-beam guideway 13-m above the academic plinth providing a lookout point from which students can gaze at the canopyshaded green piazzas connecting the academic buildings and runs on overlapping routes to the residential quarters stopping at a total 14 stations. The plan calls for an easily constructible and cost-controlled design of the 12-km alignment guideway with straight and curved segments. Sticking with the 25-months grueling time schedule was a project requirement but delivering on looks and uncompromising soundness of design is that of the team of bridge engineering designers’ own commitment to design and execution. 1 5 2 3 6 4 1 Assembling of the two precast unsymmetrical C-beams on site 2 On site connection of the two C-beams through stitching concrete 3 Erection of the 10 cm precast slabs 4 Cast in situ of the 15 cm R.C deck slab 5 Final stage elevation and cross section of the 36 m straight span 4