Hello Delhi

The people of Delhi, India’s great northern metropolis, have reason to be happy now that their long-awaited Signature Bridge in the suburb of Wazirabad has finally opened to traffic – and we at mageba are also delighted to have contributed to the construction and future maintenance of this spectacular structure

The beautiful Signature Bridge over the Yamuna River, north of New Delhi, finally opened on 4th November 2018 following a prolonged programme delay in the construction of the superstructure. India's first ‘asymmetrical cable-styled bridge', with its dramatically inclined steel pylon and elegant stay cable design, make it a particularly attractive addition to the Delhi skyline. The shape of the 154m-high pylon, designed to resemble the Indian hand gesture for greeting, "Namaste", also provides, to a substantial extent, the stress balance required to support the deck and allows for a minimalist backstay system.

mageba is proud to have supplied the expansion joints required by the new structure – TENSA® MODULAR joints with up to twelve individual movement gaps each, accommodating longitudinal movements of up to 960 mm. This type of joint, which was invented by mageba and continually developed over the years, uses only the best materials and has proven its excellent performance in extensive laboratory testing (including extraordinarily demanding fatigue testing with six million load cycles per specimen, carried out at Lehigh University in the USA), and on countless structures, over a period of several decades.

The maintenance of this remarkable structure will also be supported by mageba technology, with the real-time data provided by a sophisticated and modern ROBO®CONTROL structural health monitoring (SHM) system used to monitor the structure’s condition, behaviour and performance – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The system is designed to measure a range of key variables, such as the forces in stay cables, and to monitor the effects of weather, earthquakes, corrosion and other environmental influences. The precisely measured data, made available to the bridge’s engineers in real time via a user-friendly interface, will greatly improve the efficiency of monitoring work compared to manual methods, and any significant anomalies detected will be immediately reported to the responsible engineers.

Thanks to the installation of highly developed expansion joints that have proven their performance and durability in countless structures and in extensive testing, and the use of the high-tech SHM system in its maintenance, the future maintenance work required by the bridge and its expansion joints can be kept to a minimum – pleasing not only the bridge’s owner and operator, but also the bridge users who will not be subjected to avoidable traffic disruption.

Bridge designer: Schlaich Bergermann & Partner in JV with Construma Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.
Contractor: Joint Venture of Gammon India, Tensa India and Construtora Cidade
Bridge Owner/Client: Delhi Tourism & Transportation Development Corporation Ltd

The bridge has a striking design with an angled pylon of height 154 m, resembling the Indian hand gesture greeting “Namaste”, as shown here during the bridge’s construction

The joints were fabricated at mageba’s Indian factory in Kolkata

Two 12-gap TENSA® MODULAR joints following delivery to site – designed to accommodate longitudinal movements of up to 960 mm (with a transportation and installation frame on top of each)

Representation of positioning of the 112 sensors of the bridge’s comprehensive structural health monitoring (SHM) system

A corrosion sensor during installation in the structure prior to concreting – one of the many sensors that will provide ongoing information to the bridge’s ROBO®CONTROL SHM system, helping it to optimise inspection and maintenance work

Installation of sensors on stay cables to measure cable forces

Crossing of the bridge by its first users – happy with the substantial reduction in travel time it makes possible