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was possible to provide two spans for navigational purpose but vertical clearance cant be increased because of near by Thane yard, where gradient of track cannot be increased. Hence Port Authorities has agreed that same vertical clearance as available in existing bridge can be provided and in due course they will dredge the present bed to a depth of 3.0m. Existing navigational span of 29 m is semi-through girder bridge. Girder bridges are causing problems due to non-availability of wooden sleepers and riding quality is poor due to change of track structures. Hence it was preferred to have ballasted deck where continuity of the track structure is maintained and riding quality is good with minimum maintenance cost. An Engineering solution was found by way of BOW STRING GIRDER where it is possible to restrict the height of rail level to bottom of girder to 1500 mm, out of which 725 mm is rail level to top of deck for rails, sleepers and ballast cushion and 775 mm for designing of deck slab and cross beams. As the hangers are tension members of the Bow String Bridge, these are the most important and crucial members of the girder. Therefore to protect these hangers from any damage due to derailment of trains, the fender boxes have been provided at 3.5m height from Rail Level on each hangers of central arch.
Design Approach
For this bridge, additional vertical clearance was required to be provided in three spans. Hence design approach was to develop a structural configuration, which will require minimum depth 1500 mm between rail top to soffit of structure for the long span of 32 m with MBG loading. Since rail, ballast etc. takes up depth of 750mm, structural depth of only 750 mm is available. Live load defection permissible as per IRS Concrete Bridge Code is only span/1000, it was therefore necessary to have configuration stiff enough to keep live load deformations under check, without increasing dead load & depth below rail. Structure should also have adequate fatigue strength and durability. Actual design was done as per relevant Railway loading standards & codes. Three bowstring girders of 32 m span with limited depth of 750 mm only were designed to support two tracks whereas normal depth requirement with PSC box girder was 2.5m. A single-track loading is 50% higher than a two-lane roadway loading, central bowstring girder is thus carrying equivalent of a 3-lane roadway loading.
Salient Features
a) Chosen form improves durability as most of the structure is in compression. b) Permissible stress levels in hangers reduced to minimize corrosion impact and improve fatigue strength. Hanger being the only tension member, crack width is limited to 0.1mm. c) Partial shock absorbing system provided on hangers to reduce the damage due to accident. d) Aesthetics, as the bridge is located in the heart of the city. e) Form chosen was unconventional for railway bridges. f) Material consumption per sq m of bridge compares very well with conventional solutions and cost/sq m is only marginally higher. Top arch being predominantly a compression member requires minimum reinforcement except at few locations. Bottom tie being predominantly a tension member can be easily prestressed. Hangars being axially tensioned members and can either be prestressed as done for Godavari Bridge at Rajahmundry or if hangars are short, they can be in RCC as in this case. In view of short heights of hangers, prestressing of hangars was not possible, therefore hangars have been designed with reinforcement to take the tensions. The stress level in the hangar reinforcement is kept substantially lower for limiting crack width to 0.1 mm and high fatigue strength. Spacing of the hangers is optimized to ensure to reversal of stresses under any condition of part/full loading. Normal precautions like provision of checkrails etc. has been made as safety against derailment. Additionally on the central hanger, structural steel buffer boxes have been provided at an appropriate level, which can absorb some of the impact in case any of the bogies come to rest against the hangars. Spacing of hangars is such that at least 4-5 hangars will share the load.
Construction Aspects
In order to reduce the construction joints in beams, slabs and arches it has been concreted in a single pour of 247 cum covering end cross beams, longitudinal beams, deck slab and end part of arch (3 m height). Special floating type of shuttering to cover 3m height of arch was erected. Malamine based superplasticiser Sikament 500M2 with a dose of 1.2% by weight of cement was used which gives a slump of 120 mm even after 3 hrs and initial setting time increased to 6 hrs keeping w/c ratio of 0.37. Concreting sequence was so planned that new concrete is poured before previously laid concrete achieves initial setting. Hence cold joints were completely avoided. Hangars were cast with minimum joints by concreting in 2.0 m lifts. All construction joints have been sealed with epoxy mortar. The reinforcement bars have been given anticorrosive treatment as per CECRI and hangar bars were treated with fusion-bonded epoxy. To make the deck slab water proof, 10 mm thick mastic asphalt and 30 mm thick fiber reinforced concrete of M30 grade has been provided. The fiberlon nylon fibers were used as reinforcement to avoid shrinkage cracks and higher impact resistance. To increase the durability of concrete, all surfaces of girders have been given a coating of IPNet (Anticorrosive Polymer System) in 4 layers with overall thickness of 300-350 mircon. To complete in a single pour, concrete of 247 cum was done in 10 hrs, by deploying two concrete pumps and using ready mix concrete
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