The above described technique allowed, together with the use of mortar, a quite efficient connection system which was extensively performed for the voussoirs, in the vault, where three different groups of connectors were adopted: dowels among row joints, cramps for side joints, and extrados cramps mounted in a continuous layout to guarantee a tying action. All the other stone elements of the bridge were linked by metal connectors, including the parapets which were doweled to the upper cornices and linked one to each other trough visible cramps placed on top edge.

Most of these iron strengthening were hidden and protected in the inner parts of the joints, also to avoid rust; nevertheless, being those elements hand forged and partially winded by the lead, they could not get easily rusted: as it has been noted for the recovered stones, which after being 4 years in the river waters, were quite damaged but considerably in good condition.

For what concern detailed explanation of the assembling techniques, the methodology used, and the dimensioning criteria, refer to chapter 9 of this report.

• the pavement and the stone slabs over the lightening voids were in krecnjak stone, a limestone hard and resistive marble-like of light colour;
• metal connectors, cramps and dowels, were in forged iron as well as the fence;
• lead was used for the connectors and for the assembling of the fence;
• mortars of different types and compositions have been found all over the structure: refer to LGA reports for detailed analysis;
• "terra rossa": red coloured aggregates with a remarkable content of bauxite were settled in a layer underneath the pavement.

A special document, as summary of the construction materials and their correct denomination, has been asked to LGA by GE. For this special issue credits are given to LGA and to eng. Gregor Stolarski, the document is here fully reported:

• Tenelija (local name) for the oolithic limestone, uniformly granulated (visible grains), ivory - whitish coloured stone; denomination used in the LGA reports is either Tenelija or oolithic limestone; also more grey coloured type is encountered;

• Breca (local name) or natural breccia or conglomerate; greyish, very coarse (gravel size well rounded grains) and very porous stone, which is encountered directly at the location of the bridge in Neretva river bank formations; it presents a secondary cementation of a large size river sediment; in the LGA report mostly named Breca, also as conglomerate by others (e.g. CONEX);

• Krecnjak - dark grey, the dark-grey and black-grey section of limestone blocks at the right bank downstream wing wall foundation (few rows of stones only, possibly of origin older than Stari Most) covered partially with modern restoration - plaster; this section was wrongly named "marl" in early LGA paper;

• Krecnjak - massive, a massive, white - grey limestone used in the rough irregular masonry works e.g. of the towers, in the fill masonry of the Stari Most and in the stiffening rib; sharp-edged stones of small size, very hard stone;

• Krecnjak - marble, massive, marble - alike limestone, which is used in the pavement slabs; also encountered locally in aggregates of fill mortar;

• "Sandstone" (as direct translation of the local name), geologically a conglomerate of white smaller grains (when compared to Breca) - not a classical "sandstone"; Its individual grains are very sharp edged and are embedded into a sandy, iron-oxide coloured cementation matrix; the stone is hard and porous; it is represented by only few stones within the monument, found e.g. as window frame in Helebija;

• Miljevina, a massive limestone of oolithic origin but with no visible grains, harder than Tenelija (found in the same quarry Mukoša), a "mudstone" in a sense; used obviously for recent or younger repair works only on very few spots;

Below the pavement slabs two different mortar layers are defined:

• pink lay mortar for the stones, few centimetres thick only below the stones and present also still in the joints between the slabs of the pavement; laid as real mortar

• dark red and brick red mortar layers below the pink one; defined as foundation or levelling layer for the final pavement cover; this "mortar" has a composition of an ancient mortar, have been placed under low workability (low moisture content) and compacted manually; the thickness is probably less than 10 cm but cannot be clearly defined without precise archaeological studies, since the red colour has spread down to the mineral layers, originally not belonging to the pavement formation (levelling) layer.

• Additionally a mineral fill layer has been placed historically under the dark red mortar as equalising foundation layer. This layer contained sand and clay of intense red colour and has been defined by comparison to local materials as Crvenica - the red earth, geologically: very old soil, typical for the region and for the limestone formations. From the point of view of LGA it is not recommended to put the local red earth into the reconstructed bridge due to the high clay content, which is above the frost resistance tolerance level. Instead the fill mortar below should be laid to the original red-earth level.

• the load bearing arch was the main target element of the shelling: a wide portion of it was destroyed before final collapse, (from the reins to the key stone for a thickness of about a meter);
• other shelling which were higher than the target perforated the spandrel wall with escaping of fill;
• the attack has been performed by people that knew the basic functioning of a bridge structure;
• shelling was performed with the aim of causing the collapse of the bridge and not of ruining the bridge; the bridge collapsed when a shell broke definitely the continuity of the load bearing arch.

The above mentioned movie has helped the work for the repositioning of the recovered stones, (see §4.3.7), since it has been possible to determine the voussoirs that were most likely definitely lost and reduced to powder due to direct hit.

author of the text: arch. Manfredo Romeo – other contributes have been mentioned in related paragraphs