Bridges in railways

2014

Abstract: The Howrah Bridge and Second Hooghly Bridge has been serving the city of Kolkata in conjunction with each other by allowing the city to be well connected with the rest of the state and indeed the rest of the country. The bridges by themselves, the former being of balancedcantilever form and the latter being cable-stayed, are marvels of bridge engineering with each being built in very different eras with tremendous variation in the technology that had been employed, all to serve the one purpose of improving communication and traffic conditions by releasing some of the volume exerted on each due to daily movement. The main issue of this research is to make a comparative review of the two bridges, mainly from strict technical points of views and also from the social and economic factors that arise out of them. The structural configurations, foundation characteristics, construction techniques and maintenance issues have been extensively discussed. Relevant statistical facts re...

VIEWPOINT-Official Publication of the Consulting Engineers Association of India(CEAI), 2018

Howrah Bridge, also called Rabindra Setu, the icon of Kolkata, still amazes modern world due to its megalomaniac structure. However, if one looks into the details of construction, one would be surprised to learn the huge amount of energy conservational efforts undertaken for its standing tall till now. Prior to the present Howrah Bridge, Calcutta was at that time the capital of British India and enjoyed the glory as the second city of Empire after London when 2/3 rd of the entire world was under British rule. Calcutta (as it was then know) was growing at a very fast rate along with Howrah on the other bank right since the 18 th century. That had necessitated the construction of a pontoon bridge to facilitate the movement of men and goods in lieu of the river transportation mode like boat, streamer, etc.The old bridge was a floating pontoon bridge built in 1874 and designed by Sir Bradford Lesile, Chief Engineer of Eastern Bengal Railway. The old pontoon bridge had a total length of 1528 ft. with a removable central section of 200 ft. that allowed ships to cross. It had an estimated life of 25 years but served for 68 years before it was replaced. This old bridge had to cater to the growing road traffic across the river, consisting mostly of bullock carts laden with goods and carriages drawn by horses that ferried across the trading community and visitors alike, conveyed raw materials sourced from the rest of India for Britain via the port and the finished materials from the colonial masters to the populace of the city. The pontoon bridge with its removable section often in detached condition created traffic bottlenecks that found standing traffic for almost a whole day along causing a great loss of energy both for mankind and animal folk. Demand grew rapidly for a high level bridge that would allow unhindered movement of road vehicles as also the river traffic, with planning for a bridge that will cross the river in a single span – a very tall order indeed for the then state of art of technology. Figure 1: Howrah Bridge, then & now

2021

Bridges are structures that connect two places or two points separated by natural bodies like sea, ocean, hills, etc. These bridges are mainly constructed for different vehicles to move on but even pedestrians can also use. In West Bengal there are many bridges but among them four major ones are: Howrah Bridge, Second Hooghly Bridge, Bally Bridge and Nivedita Bridge. All these four bridges serve as the lifeline for the entire state. This paper deals with the overview and case study of Howrah Bridge and Second Hooghly Bridge; their history, constructional details and materials, impact on social, economical and cultural life, etc.

IABSE Symposium Report, 2010

John Dauth, born 1946, received his civil engineering degree from the University of Queensland in 1968 and his Master of Engineering Science from the University of New South Wales in 1975. John has worked for 32 years as a designer with consultants and the last 10 years as a design manager with constructors.

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering History and Heritage, 2020

Vivekananda Bridge is a major steel bridge over the River Hooghly and is one of the first rail-cum-road bridges in colonial India. It serves as an important link between Calcutta and the rest of India through Bally, impacting passenger commuting, as well as regional trade and commerce. The bridge has seven main spans of 107 m each, supported on brick masonry piers founded on caissons. These spans are made of riveted steel members weighing about 2500 t each, 70% of which was produced indigenously. The main spans are modified Petit-type steel trusses placed at 11.6 m between the centre of booms. The total width of the bridge is about 30 m with the dual-track railway line in the middle, flanked by roadways and footpaths on both sides. The cross girders are suspended below the two bottom booms, and cantilever extensions of these cross girders carry the roadways and footpaths. Although planning for the bridge was mooted in 1912, it was not until January 1927 that the work at the site was started. The bridge was finally opened to traffic in December 1931 by the then Viceroy, Earl of Willingdon and was earlier called after him as Willingdon Bridge (also later known as Bally Bridge). 1 Cite this article Ghosh UK Vivekananda Bridge, India: an emblem of city connectivity.

Abstract: Modern day construction prefers prestressed girders over conventional RCC for long span bridge construction. This paper deals with the design of railway over bridge at Kumaranellur, Kerala. The bridge connects MC road and Kumaranellur temple road. The bridge has an overall length of 312m with a width of 12m and longest span of 33m. The major goal of this is to validate and recommend details for the design of durable and constructible details to achieve structural continuity between the standard precast, prestressed concrete girders for this proposed bridge. Along with it, this paper will be dealing with the design of the pier. Keywords: Prestressed bridge design, I girder, cross beam, end block, pier. Title: Analysis And Design Of Railway Over Bridge At Kumaranellur Author: Prof. Ancy Joseph, Elsa Babu, Karthika Babu, Lakshmi G, Meera R Krishna International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering Research ISSN 2348-7607 (Online) Research Publish Journals

The recently completed Arrah-Chhapra Bridge has set the record for the world's longest multispan extradosed bridge. The 4.35km-long 4-lane bridge is composed of fifteen 120m-long extradosed spans over the main river channel and thirty-six 58m-long simply-supported approach spans. The extradosed precast girder segments were erected using the balanced cantilever method and supported by a single plane of cables arranged in a harp configuration. This paper describes the bridge design and erection, with a focus on the challenges overcome by the contractor and the engineering consultant. The presentation discussed the experience gained by the contractor and the engineering consultant during the design and construction of the Arrah-Chhapra Bridge project-providing an account of the design and construction challenges overcome by design-build construction teams working on large-scale projects in relatively undeveloped regions, and how they can be overcome.

In general a bridge project can be considered to have three major stages. They are, 1. Investigation stage 2. Design stage & 3. Construction stage Unlike the building structure constructions, bridge projects require an intensive investigation based on the feasibility, requirement or necessity, population benefited, economic development expected, topography, hydraulic data and soil characteristics prior to the approval and design stages. After all such investigations being over, the design stage commences. The design stage, consists of mainly three elements; hydraulic design, geometric design and structural design. Hydraulic design accounts for calculation of flood discharge, scour action near the bridge supporting structures, characteristics of river channel to fix the level of the bridge, clear water way of the bridge and thus the bridge spans. Foundation depth based on hydraulic characteristics is also a point to be considered. In geometric design, vertical and horizontal alignment and curvatures required are to be established. Traffic flow characteristics, projected traffic over one or two decades are to be considered. Thus the geometric design concerns more with transportation engineering point of view. Structural design involves the selection of component types and providing an economical solution for the purpose intended based on strength and serviceability point of view. At the end of design stage estimations, drawings and approvals are vital roles to be performed. At the construction stage, one cannot start the construction of bridge all of a sudden without certain preparatory works. Apart from primary construction surveys, river training works, coffer dam construction, approaches for machinery and equipments, storage and security for materials are important elements of bridge project under construction stage. Material and manpower management are also vital tasks for construction managers at this stage. There are design specific and bridge type specific construction technologies that could be adopted at this stage (like slip form, cantilever form techniques etc.). 2.3 DESIGN OBJECTIVES The general objective of bridge design is to provide economic, viable and safe solution to cross an obstacle such as river, valley and other traffic flow, by means of proper selection of site, material, type, technology and design. Specific objectives can be listed as follows: 1. to provide economic, strong and durable design of bridge 2. to provide the shortest structure across the obstacle 3. to forecast and decide the expected traffic flow in the future decades to come and to finalize the structural dimensions 4. to study the hydraulic data and fix economic spans for the bridge superstructure 5. to include applicable load combinations to design the structural components with the help of appropriate design code DESIGN WORKING LIFE Concrete, stone and steel bridges shall be designed for 100 years working life. Concrete and Steel culverts with an opening or diameter less than 2.0 m and all timber bridges shall be designed for 50 years working life.

The Padma Bridge is a multipurpose road-rail bridge across the Padma River to be constructed in Bangladesh. When completed it will be the largest bridge in Bangladesh and the first fixed river crossing for road traffic. It will connect Louhajong, Munshiganj to Shariatpur and Madaripur, linking the southwest of the country, to northern and eastern regions.