Experiences And Future Trends In Design And Construction Of Bridges by Pryush Agarwal* SYNOPSIS The history of bridge building, right from the inception of human civilization to the modem era, has been the history of humankind’s endeavours and achievements. To an engineer, bridges are a challenge to successfully surmount the obstacles in construction. A bridge may be defined as a structure ‘surmounting an obstacle such as a river, road, valley, depression or Railway and used asa passage for ‘people or vehicular traffic. A bridge is designed to satisfy the functional, economic, strategic and aesthetic requirements. The varieties of bridges demonstrate the combination of art and technology. 1.1 Bridges existed in nature, say in the form of a wooden log across a stream or an arch of stone formed by the erosion of soll in a stream. The first known bridge constructed is said to be an arch bridge built in Babylon in 2200BC, The concept of building bridges has taken roots, probably through the observations of these natural Phenomena. Timber was the first material used for bridge ‘construction followed by bricks and stones which imparted greater durability. Numerous arch bridges have been constructed, some of them with elegant and graceful aesthetics, including two and three-tiered arch viaducts. ‘Old masonry arch bridges built more than 150 years ago are still found in service. 1.2 With the development of technology of wrought iron and steel, the bridge construction technology took a ‘quantum jump and the era of long-span bridges started. In 1815, Henry Jessop of Jessop & Co of Kolkata built the first iron bridge in India for the Nawab of Oudh and this stil spans the Gomati river at Lucknow. The first plate girder bridge was built in 1847. Number of wrought iron and ste! bridges, built more than 100 years ago, are still in service, notable amongst which is ald Yamuna Bridge in Delhi and Howrah bridge at Kolkata on river Hoogly. 1.3 With the advent of concrete, construction of concrete bridges started in the country. The advantages of concrete such as low relative cost, easy availabilty of ingredients, versatility, adaptability and adequate engineering properties were soon realized and the later half of 20th century witnessed a boom in concrete bridge construction. The concrete bridge design evolved through many forms, ranging from the plain concrete to reinforced concrete and from beam and girder type to the bow-string girders. Meanwhile composite bridges were also built utilizing the {ull strength potential of steel and concrete both. However, it was the advent of pre-casting and_pre-stressing technologies that enabled the real potential of concrete in bridge construction to be realised. Today, techniques ranging from simple pre casting to segmental construction Executive DrectorB&S, ROSO, Lucknow combined with the use of high-strength and very recently high performance concretes have opened a vista for bridge engineers to conceive and construct bridge structures which were undreamt of earlier. The limits of the technology have by no means been reached, even with the concept of the cable-stayed structures. 4.4. The chronological development of bridges are as below: 1854] FirstBridge | “Dapoorie” viaduch of GIP Railway with 22 stone arches across the ‘reek to link Bombay island with the mainland of Thane. Historie breakthrough by EIR after 7 years of construction near Arran in Bihar with 28 piers spanning almost 114 km. Later upper Sone bridge madein 1900, “Twin Rall-cum-Road deck bridges of ‘Tonse NearAlahabad & Old Jamuna near Delhi. Duke of Edinburgh fixed asilverrivorin"Tonse" in 1870. BBECI's crossing across Bassein ‘reek 20 miles from Bombay. Madras City connection Sirsawa across Yamuna near Ambala, Sutle), Beas (it colapsed: with a passenger train) & Alexandra ‘across Chenab. More bridges acrass Sutle) &Beasin 1914. “Dufferin" Rail-cum-Road deck bridge near Kashi. Re-named as Malviya bridge after independence, Balawali bridge near Moradabad Later, Garmuketshwar bridge made in 1901. “Curzon” Rail-cum-Road deck bridge near Allahabad made in 1905 1863 | Sone Bridges "1864 | Yamuna bridges| 1864 | Bassein Creek 1870 7870 Pennair Greek Punjab Bridges 11887 | Ganga bridges {IRICEN JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEER1887] Hooghly bridges) Calcutta city connections through “Jubilee” bridge-24 miles. north. "Wilingadon” bridge near Bally made in 1929. Howrah Bridge opened to traffic on 1943. 1900 Godavri bridges Earliest of Rajamundry triplets each spanning 3 kms. 2nd & 3rd in 1964 & 1998 respectively Last of these is a unique bowstring arch girder concrete bridge, Jor 4 ter viaducts Roman style with 4-618/10 arches. Rameshwaram link reducing the distance to Colombo and spanning ‘ver 2 kms including a two leat "Scherzer" roling lit bridge (span 200 feet to lift and allow ships to pass. Restored after cycione in 1964, 4927 | Kangra crossing) Unique steel arch spanning 200 feet across Reyond Nullah of Kangra Valley hil Railway Rall-cum-Road deck bridge near ‘Guwahati spanning 1.3 kms. Later, 3 km near Tezpore in 1987 & 2.3km ral-cum-Road crossing near Jogighopa in 1998, +1998 | Konkan Railway) Tallest viaduct on Panvel Nadi (64m) bridges and Shravati river crossing in Honnavar (over 2 kms) apart from other 175 majorbridges. 7903) Sima Viaducts| 1913 | Pamban bridge 7962 Brahmputra bridges 2.0 TYPE OF RAILWAY BRIDGES 2.1 There are about 1,27,768 bridges on Indian Railways. (Out of which, 42% are more than 100 years old, 62% are more than 80 years and 75% are more than 80 years old. The details areas below: Important Br Major Br MinorBr Arch Br ‘Steel/Composite Br RCC box RCCIPSC slab PSC girder Pipes Others 37 0,437 16,678 = 19,647 Bridges have been constructed across major rivers, small nallahs, large lakes, deep valleys and across irrigation fields. The span of these bridges vary from small pipe culverts of less than 30 cm diameter to more than 120 metre. During early period, naturally available stone was, used for constructing piers, abutments and the arches. Later brick masonry and concrete masonry were used as the technology of producing these material improved. Steel was mainly used for construction of superstructures. The steel girders were manufactured mostly in England and shipped to India initially Plate girders of different spans and types of that era still existing. For larger spans, open web girders of different types have been used both for railway bridges and rail-cum-road bridges. Concrete girders for railway bridges are of recent origin, Wherever used, concrete girders are heavier than steel girders of similar span. 2.2 __In India, modem bridge building emerged during the British rule, when many major bridges were built, mostly with steel decks to carry the railway tracks across the mighty rivers of Ganga, Jamuna, Godavari, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi and many others. Masonry arch and stee! trussed bridges were also built. Modem concrete bridges emerged on the indian scene during the twenties of the last century. Plain and reinforced conerete bridge: categories, namely, simply supported bridges with s slabs or ‘slab-and-beam, balanced cantilever with suspended spans and plain and reinforced concrete and bow-string girders were built during the second half of this, century. 2.3. Bridge building in India got a real boost only in the post-independent period. During the last six decades femarkable strides have been made, both in design concepts and construction techniques. While the construction of Palar Bridge in 1955 heralded the era of prestressed concrete bridges in India, On Indian Railways PSC girder bridges of 80' span were constructed in 1965 on Singraull-Obra Section. The first application of cantilever construction technique for the Barak Bridge at Silchar in 1961 opened up new vistas for long-span concrete bridges, Indian’ engineering expertise crossed yet another milestone with the construction of two cable-stayed structures on roadways, first the Akkar Bridge in Sikkim in 1988 and then the second Hoogly Bridge in 1993, Indian Railways have also adopted the technology for construction of road over bridge at Chiraiyatand, Patna in 2006. 2.4 — During recent years, innovative application of design and construction techniques has led to the construction of a number of outstanding bridges, such as the 5.575-km long Ganga Bridge at Patna which incidentally is the longest river bridge in Asia, Brahmaputra Bridge at Tezpur, rail-cum-road bridge at Jogigappa, Pamban Bridge in the Palk Strait, and bridges across the ‘Thane Creek near Bombay - tomention only a few. Mention also needs to be made of the notable achievements of the ‘engineers and builders of the Konkan Railway who have built 143 major bridgesiviaducts having a total linear waterway of more than 19 km in a short span of 5 years. ‘The credit for this achievement goes mainly to the adoption of innovative design methods, standardisation of procedures, extensive pre-casting, use of slip-formwork for tall piers and abutments, and adoption of suitable launching methods for superstructure. Incidentally, the incremental launching technique which is popular in Europe and elsewhere had been adopted for the first time in India for the Panval Nadi viaduct on the Konkan Railway, With the recent advancements in welding technology, increased emphasis has been given to design welded girders instead of vetted. Even open web girder members are now welded type. In new constructions, the field ‘connections are also proposed to be welded.3.0 BRIDGE DESIGN PRACTICES Key elements to be considered at the preliminary phase of design of a bridge are loads, soll conditions for foundations, waterway requirements, vertical clearance requirements with respect to the designed discharge level, initial construction and maintenance costs, safely and materials. For major and important bridges, other considerations like development of the area served by the railway line, aesthetic considerations also are to be considered. 3.1 The Indian rivers, especially in North India, are still unstable and changing courses frequently, The flood levels and the extent of floods are also changing, Based on the experience in the pastin India and abroad, corrective action canbe taken for the assessment of waterway requirement, vertical clearance, scour depth. River training and protection works are very costly and should be carefully applied. For smaller bridges, the waterway requirement can be reviewed by adopting realistic methods based on past experience and actual field conditions existing now, This will be helpful in planning rebuilding of bridges in ‘gauge conversion works with reduced costs and time. 3.2 Another area which requires more consideration is the ‘subsoil investigation and deciding the type of foundations. ‘The type and extent of investigation has to be decided for individual bridges and should be followed to avoid failures and unsatisfactory features during their service life. The techniques of geotechnical investigations have developed to a high degree of accuracy and these techniques should be adopted to the advantage of Bridge Engineering, 3.3 Traditionally, well foundations are preferred by Bridge Engineers and these foundations are functioning well in majority of cases. But they are more labour intensive and the progress of work can be slow in difficult situations. With availabilty of precast piles and pile driving equipments, pile foundations can be cheaper and construction can be faster. Pile driving rigs are now-a-days available for bores upto to 2.5m dia therefore pile foundations can be used as an alternative to well foundations. The relative cost of these two types of foundations in a particular project can be worked out taking into consideration the ground conditions and cost can be optimised. An overall view of river flow pattern, subsoil conditions, construction facilities, time of construction, maintenance efforts required in future ete, hhas tobe taken by the designers, 3.4 The selection of material for superstructure has to be made, based on considerations like initial cost, maintenance cost, service life, speed of construction, environmental conditions etc. Concrete bridges are likely to increase the load on the substructure and consequently their cost. Concrete structures require quality construction to reduce the maintenance costs. Steel structures are light, easy for replacement and renewal but require intensive maintenance programme. The salvage value of steel structures is often large enough to justify their adoption in long span bridges. Maintenance requirement of the track con the bridge should be considered including restoration during accidents. 20 3.5 Any structure in service requires maintenance and inspection of a bridge is the starting point of maintenance. Railway bridges are inspected manually by a well organised inspection organisation. Historically the inspection is done with safety in mind, The entire service life behaviour of the structure depends on the type of construction, Steel has been a time tested material for bridges. Most of the long span bridges on Indian Railways have been constructed with steel for which fabrication has been done in Central Workshops of railways. However, steel bridges require frequent maintenance attention like painting, testing of rivets, greasing of bearings etc. Since steel is produced under factory conditions, there is not much change in material properties except due to 3.6 Masonry bridges on the other hand have served with almost no maintenance for a long period. Their reserve strength is being utilized today by increasing the permissible stresses. But this cannot be extended for too long a period. Procedures for testing the masonry structures based on visual inspection and minor repairs has to be adopted for railway bridges like being followed for highway bridges in U.K. and other countries. These countries have developed dynamic response techniques also for masonry bridges to predict their residual life, 3.7 Concrete bridges are considered as maintenance-free structures provided the initial construction is good and without any defects. Concrete being a heterogeneous Material, there are various parameters to be controlled during construction, Some of these are good cement, aggregate, water cement ratio, detailing of reinforcement, leak proof shuttering, workable concrete mix, good vibration, proper curing, adequate time interval for removal of shuttering, proper handling of members after removal of shuttering, adequate drainage arrangements for water, provision of wearing course etc. The quality control is extremely important and everything has to be controlled during construction itself. It is almost impossible to make corrective action later. Corrosion of steel reinforcement and bad concreting are the main factors which have to be taken care of, if maintenance free structures are to be produced 3.8 Technological advancement have also taken place in the field of bridge bearings. From conventional fat sliding bearings and rocker cum roller bearings, Indian Railway has already moved to Pot-PTFE bearings which are considered maintenance free. Further advancements such as Spherical bearing with PTFE is stillto be adopted in future 4.0 _TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED BRIDGES CONSTRUCTED/UNDER CONSTRUCTION ON INDIAN RAILWAYS 4.4 Sarai Ghat Bridge First bridge constructed across Brahmaputra. Rail cum road bridge is situated close to Guwahati and Provide road connectivity to NH-31 from NH-37. + Length of bridge-1.296 Km. + Span- (33.20m + 10x122.95m + 33.20m) steel trussgirder + Double Warren type girder with sub-verticals 18.30 mhigh and 8.90 mwide + rollerand rockerbearings + Rail:TwoMGML or Single BEML + Road: 2Class'A’ or Single Class 'AA + Design Discharge - 63,720 cumec + Design Scour-40.84 m below HFL + Foundation - Double D' type wells (16.30mx9.75m) + Steining- 0.90 mthick concrete steining + Depth of well -60.65m below HFL + Shore Pier Twin circular well of 6.0m dia each having depth of 27.50m below HEL. 4.2 Nara- Narayan Setu at Jogigoppa Rail-cum-road bridge constructed over river Brahmaputra. Length of bridge-2.284 km, + Span-1x32.60m+14x125m_+1x94.60m+3x125m+ 1x32,.60m + Length of Road Viaducts- 1.082 kms + Main spans-Double Warren type open web steel girders, 18.50m high and 11.50m wide with steel floor system for railway and composite roadway deck. + Foundation-Double 'D' Type wells (14mx17m) for P1 to P16 and P19, circular wells for P-17 and P-18 (18m diameter) Twin-circular wells (6m diameter) for both abutments, + Design discharge: 90,400 cumecs, 43° Kallabhomora Road Bridge Near Tezpur- Road bridge constructed by Railway on river Brahmaputra at the request of North Eastern Council. Main bridge gitders are of 120 m span PSC box girder which have been constructed by segmental construction method. ? Length ofbridge-3.015 km 2 Spans - 1x67.5m + 24x120m + 1x67.5m, PSC cantilever box girder with RCC suspended span 2 Foundations Circularwells of 12m dia; 2 Thickness of well steining -2m 2 Depth of well -62.5m below HFL ( 56m below LWL) ? Design Discharge : 92,000 cumec 4.4. Bogibeo! Rail Cum Road Bridge Near ‘Assam (Under Gonstruction)- ibrugarh, Design ofs land mark in the history of Railway bridges. Itis atwo tier Rail cum Road Bridge composite truss bridge with 2BG Tracks & 2 Lane Road on the top deck. Itconceives a steel truss floor system for railway with composite reinforced concrete road deck. First time welded truss joints have been proposed. Provisions from international codes have been taken wherever not available.Incremental launching method is proposed to be adopted. + Length of Main Bridge: 4.315kms + Length of Road Viaducts: 1.815 kms + Span-1x32.5m+34x125m+ 1x32.5m + Warren type Welded High Strength Steel Truss (13.50mhigh, 11.60m wide) + Twin circular hollow RCC piers on Double Shaped wells (16.2mx 10.5m) 4.8 Pamban Bridge - Pamban Bridge across Palk Strait in the Bay of Bengal is 2.06 km long with 146 spans of 40’ and one Scherzer lift span (navigational span) of 214’ and is 95 years old. Itwas modified from MG to BG & was commissioned for passenger train services on 12” Aug,2007. The navigated span with its lifting arrangements has been modified to cater to the needs of Broad Gauge. The bridge being located in one of the severest corrosive zone in the world, was severely affected by corrosion. Conversion involved, apart from execution problems, many analysis/design challenges suchas + Severe limitation in providing additional plates for extra counter weight + Design of coupling for Mid span connection between two cantilever portions. + Actual cross sectional properties were considered in view of corrosion. 4.6 ROB at Chiralyatand Cable Stayed Rallway over bridge at Chiraiyatand, Patna constructed recently. It was Constructed in two stages to allow the traffic during the construction. Innovative load transfer devices (steel out riggers) to transfer load from bridge deck to cables was used + Overallspan-110m. + ROC pylons -40m height (3No) 4.7 Kosi Bridge Under Construction - This is on river Kosi, most notorious river, considered to be the sorrow of Bihar. Ithas changed its course 100 times in past 100 years. Bridge falls in seismic zone V & Seismic design is based on site specific spectrum. 2 Span-39X45.7m, Steel OWG girder. 2 Overall Length-1.875km. 2 Diaofcircularwell 8.0m, 2 Steining thickness 2.2m 2 Depth of well 39.0m 2 Design discharge 26900 cum/sec 4.8 Rall Cum Road Bridge Over River Ganga At Digha Ghat, Patna (Under Construction) - This connect Danapur station of Patna- New Delhi Main Line (Danapur Divsision) to Sonpur station of Hajipur- CChhhapra section (Sonpur Division) of East Central Railway. Thus connect North & South Bihar near Patna. After the construction of Bridge, the distance between Patna andChhapra will reduce to 70 Km from 250 Km and 120 Km via rail route (Rajendra Bridge) and road route respectively. After the construction of bridge, Chhapra, Sonpur, Hajipur, Vaisalitowns etc. of north Bihar willbe directly connected to the capital city of Bihar through raillink Span - 1x64m+36x 123m+1x64m, Foundation , 39 Nos, well Double D shape of size 18,0mx9,5m, Depth 51.5m Height ofpier- 15m Maximum depth of water- 9m. ‘Sheet Pile was used for wells in water Weight of each girder - 1980 MT (Superstructure total stee! 73260 MT) 4,9 Munger Bridge (Under Construction) ‘A rail-cum-road bridge having length 3.69 km on river Ganga. Warren type welded stee! truss having single track at bottom level and 12m road deck at intermediate! 4.40 el. ‘Span- 1X32.6 m+29X125m-+ 1X32.6m Foundations - Double D well, 18.0mx 1.0m Well depth 55.2m Nooffoundation 32 Design discharge 90,000 cumisec Mahanadi Bridge This is a 2” rail bridge over river Mahanadi and located between Kendrapara Road and Cuttack Station Ithas been planned in such a way that its spans shall match with the existing Bridge without causing any obstructions in river flow due to Sub-structure. The superstructure is launched element by element with cantilever method of erection. The ‘Super-structure and Sub-structure have been designed for Heavy Mineral Loading.The Girders are provided with POT/PTFE Bearings Design discharge - 18,000 Cumecs Length of Bridge -2.106km. Number of Spans -32x64.6m Type of Girder- Steel Open Web Design discharge - 18,000 cumecs 4.11 Sone Bridge Under Construction This is a 3.06 km long rail bridge connecting Dehri on Sone to ‘Sone Nagar Station of MGS Division and first mega bridge on pile foundation NoofTracks 3+1 (future track) Total length of bridge 3.06 km Span - 30.8m PSC box, (Total 93 x 3=279 for three tracks) Type - Pre-cast PSC Box-girder concrete Foundation - Bored cast in situ end bearing pile, M-30 grade Diaofppile 1.25m, total 2304 no Max depth ofpile 39.55m Design discharge 37,400 cum/sec » M-45 grade 4.12 Mandovi Bridge Mandovi is an Esturian river of Arabian Sea, Thisis bridge No.1 on Mandovi Span - 1922.8 m+1x124.2m+6x535m+4x 28.8m, PSC girder except 1 span of 124.2 m, which is a through type, triangulated steel girder bridge. ‘Adoption of steel girder for the longest span has helped to reduce the height of embankment. Sub structures of smaller spans are of pile foundation varying from 1.5 to 1 mdiabored piles. For main span, well foundations have been provided of the dia of 11 mand 9.5m, M-25 grade of concrete had been used with steining thickness of 600 mm. Pneumatic sinking was required for well foundation due to rocky strata, which took average of about3 months time for 22 to 25 mofsinking. 4.13 Zuari Bridge Zuari Bridge is also one of the Esturian river of Arabian Sea. Railway alignment is crossing the same at about 10 km Upstream of the sea, Navigational requirement at this ”bridge site was the same as that was for Mandovi Bridge and hence a clearance of at least 96 m by 13 m was required tobe provided. + Span- 25x22.8m+4x53.5m+1x124.2m+3x 13.5m+5x22.8m+1x12m. + Allthe spans of PSC girders except larger span i.e. fone of 124.2 m, which is of through type of triangulated stee! girder. + Here also, sub structures are bored concrete type of piles having varying diameters except for the larger span where well foundation have been provided. 4.13 Godavari Bridge- ‘The third Godavari Bridge is another feather in the cap of. Indian engineers. This architecturally-clegant structure has an innovative bowstring arch gitder superstructure constructed in concrete. + 28 no bow-string arch girders having spans of 95.55 mlong, + Total length is 2.730 KM. 414 2° Godavari Bridg Itis a Rail Cum Road Bridge. + Spans-7x45.7m+27x91.4m + Type of Bridge - Through Open Web Girder + Material of Super Structure Mild/High Tensile Steel + Loading Standard -BGML + Bearing Rockerand Roller + Sub-structure Mass Concrete Solid Piers and Abutments + Foundation Well Foundation 4.15 Chenab bridge It consists longest steel! arch bridge in the world being constructed on Udhampur Baramula rail link project with Liber eerie rirtreeerr esr ey al total span length of 485m. The National codes (IRS, IRC, IS) have been augmented with International standards (8S, UIC and Euro). For estimation of wind load, actual site data has been generated by way of wind tunnel modeling. Snow load and blast oad have also been considered in the design of the bridge in addition to normal loads. + Total length of the bridge : 1315 m + Height of bridge 359m + Main arch span 485m + Total no. of spans 17 Nos. + Deck width Viaduct Portion 13.0m ‘Arch portion 17.00m + Max. ht ofstes! pier: 133.734m + Max ht ofconerete pier :49.343m (Hollow rectangular) + Max. size offoundation Viaduct portion 18x15x4.15m ‘Arch portion 50x30 m + Total steel fabrication: 25000 MT + Seismic zone Zone V + Wind velocity level) 220 kmph (at deck4.16 Anji Khad Bridge- The aesthetic merit of the bridges has been considered, The number of bearings have been minimized. The National codes have been augmented with International standards (BS, UIC and Euro). Utmost care has been taken in dealing with wind and seismic actions considering the height and seismicity of the area, Wind tunnel testing was carried outto assess the topographic effects of the site on the reference wind speed. Ductilty detailing of hollow piers have been taken from Euro Code. LWR has been provided over these bridges using international codes i.e, UIC 774-3R. Fatigue design has been done as per BS 5400. The dynamic pressure history for blast load calculation has been taken according to the specialist advice. + Total length of the Bridge: 657m + Height of Bridge 189m + Arch Span 265m + Viaduct Span on Kalra side = 80m (2x 28.41 + 23,18) + Viaduct Span on Reasi side : 312 m (8x 30+3x 24) + Total Stee! Fabrication 7000 MT + Deck Width 13.50 m + Seismic zone Zone V Wind Velocity(at Deck Level) :189 kmph 4.17 Sardan Bridge The longest bridge of Jammu-Udhampur project, having total length of 620 m. Consists of tall piers with maximum height of about 40 m above bed level. The approach spans are on 3-degree reverse curves having no straight in between, This bridge is having 9 spans of 45,2 m PSC girders for the viaduct on both ends with central spans of 2x 45.2 m + 2 x 63 m constructed by cantilever method of construction. Tall hollow pier shafts of 20 to 40 m heights have been cast using slipform-shuttering technique, 4.18 Gambhir Khad Bridge This is an important high level single line railway bridge on Jammu-Udhampur Project which was initially proposed as PSC continuous girders to be constructed by cantilever construction method. Two piers were already completed, however, due to some geo-technical problem at the location of one of the abutments steel super structures was proposed with spans arrangement of 2x 102m +1x80m. + Total length of the bridge : 284m Mumbai Gets Asia's Tallest Monument i he ae eT Global Vipassana Pagoda, the tallest pillarless dor the world, ‘world mounment of peace and harmony eee Maes aed State rue ca Ee Got Pee eee Cm) ic une Matta eee Olan Raa + Span 80m+2x102m + Pierheight : 71mirs, Highest IR, higher than Qutab Minar. + Foundation: : open, 4.19 _ Br. No. 20 Over Jhajjar River On Udhampur- Katra Section - This is open web type though girder bridge & tallest bridge on Indian Railway. The launching of the bridge has been done by cantilever technique using pull & push method + Span - 2X154.0 meters, single longest simply supported span in India, + Pierheight-94,633 meters + Bearing -POT-PTFE 4.20 Tawi Bridge- Continuous PSC Box Girder having a max. span of 102 mir whichis the longest on Indian Railways. 2 Total length of the bridge 2 Span 2 Open Foundation Well Foundation 2 Bearing 249.15 Mrs 71.4+102471.4m 2Nos. (P3 & At), 2.Nos.(P1 & P2) POT-PTFE 5.0 CONCLUSION Although notable advances have already been made in the field of bridge engineering in India, there is no room for ‘complacency. The present liberalized economic scenario in the country with emphasis on development of infrastructure, particularly highways, bypasses and superhighways, offers a tremendous challenge to Indian Railway Bridge Engineers. Railway bridges are mostly with simply supported girders resting on gravity type piers and abutments. Special type of construction like continuous bridges, integral piers with RCC or PSC, curved girders, bridges on gradients, multiple cel box girders, earthquake resistant design of substructures and superstructures are some of the areas where Bridge Engineering has to develop. Adoption of seismic isolation devices for the bridge is yet another area where studies have been taken up. In certain situations, some of these concepts can be used to reduce the cost of the bridge and improve maintenance. But this requires sound analysis procedures and special construction methods. Railway Engineers must be equipped to tackle these problems and produce well constructed bridges. oe ee MCC PES cies, Ties uce rede aR Curom OT as Ses ivan eV EL ater) etn rans ee rete ta are ‘mediation hail which can accommodate 8,000 people at erry Ronee) Cera ae tT)