Local in Slovakia

The structural bearings and expansion joints for the bridges of a new section of highway in southern Slovakia have been supplied by mageba’s local subsidiary.

Slovakia’s new R2 highway is currently being constructed, all the way from Trenčín in the north-west to Košice in the south-east. This is of particular interest to our colleagues in Košice, Slovakia’s second largest city, where mageba has been manufacturing bridge products since 2017. The construction of the motorway is proceeding in stages, with the current section between Mýtna and Tomášovce, 13.5 km long and costing EUR 127 million, due for completion in late 2022.

This stretch of highway includes eleven new bridges, two of which have lengths of over 500 m, and mageba is proud to have been selected to be a key supplier for the bridge construction projects – no doubt, based on the strong track record gained in the construction of many structures on the D1 highway, including on sections connecting to Budimír, to Hricovské Podhradie, to Jánovce and to Jablonov.

The bearings and expansion joints required for the construction of the structures on the current stretch of motorway included

The design of the bridge bearings, in particular, involved the application of some interesting features. Some had to be designed to facilitate height adjustment – a design feature that mageba has offered for many years already.

Less common, however, was the requirement for almost all of the unidirectional bearings supporting the curved superstructure of the second longest bridge – a 13-span structure with a length of 548 m – to be adaptable with respect to the direction of the uniaxial movement they accommodate. These structural bearings thus required to be designed with two sliding interfaces – an upper one facilitating movements along one axis during the bridge construction phase, and a lower one to facilitate movements along another axis after the superstructure’s fixed point has moved at the end of construction.

Supplying bridge bearings and expansion joints from a factory as local as possible

A project like this is particularly rewarding for us, because it is local for us. Our team in Slovakia can take great pride in the way they are supporting the construction of infrastructure that will connect their city to the rest of the country, and will take special pleasure in travelling over the bridges in years to come, knowing that the structural bearings and expansion joints they supplied continue to serve their purpose well, to the benefit of the whole country.

Bridge designer: Dopravoprojekt a.s. division Zvolen
Contractor: Association (consortium) of Metrostav a.s., HOCHTIEF SK s.r.o., HOCHTIEF CZ a.s
Owner: Národná diaľničná spoločnosť, a. s.

Construction of structure SO213, one of the eleven bridge structures on the newest section of Slovakia’s R2 highway, for which mageba is supplying the required bearings and expansion joints

The products supplied by mageba to support the bridges’ construction include 104 RESTON®POT bearings, designed for loads of up to 14,500 kN and movements of up to +/- 245 mm

Eighteen single-gap expansion joints of the TENSA®GRIP type were also supplied, each equipped with noise-reducing surfacing

A further fourteen expansion joints are cantilever finger joints of the TENSA®FINGER RSFD type, each designed for longitudinal movements of up to 400 mm

mageba’s team in Slovakia is proud to be playing a significant role in the construction of this new national motorway – especially as it is so close to home for them