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High in the Himalayas
Construction of the Chenab Railway Bridge – the world’s highest railway bridge, in the Indian foothills of the Himalayan mountains – has now been completed, with mageba bearings supporting its superstructure.
With a height of 359 metres – roughly 30 m higher than the Eiffel Tower – the Chenab Railway Bridge crosses the River Chenab in the far north of India, enabling the state of Jammu & Kashmir to be connected by rail to the rest of India for the first time. The 17-span structure has a length of 1315 m, including a trussed arch main span of length 469 m. The arch was constructed using two self-propelled auxiliary cable cranes, moving along cables spanning between 100m-high temporary pylons at each side of the valley. The steel box chords of the trusses were filled with concrete to help resist wind forces and save internal painting.
mageba supplied 60 RESTON®SPHERICAL bearings and 104 LASTO®BLOCK elastomeric bearings for the construction of this remarkable bridge. The spherical bearings are designed to carry vertical loads of up to 18,000 kN while accommodating sliding movements, and twenty of them are additionally designed to resist uplift forces. The elastomeric bearings are also designed to accommodate sliding movements, and most of them are installed vertically as “stopper bearings” to resist horizontal forces of up to 13,500 kN.
The project calls to mind another recent project to provide railway access to the Himalayan region of northern India, for which mageba supplied a wide range of bridge bearings and expansion joints – the Rishikesh to Karnaprayag Railway Line. So whatever the project – whether a spectacular record-breaking structure or a challenging infrastructure project requiring numerous diverse product solutions – you can rely on mageba to meet all your needs.
Bridge designer: WSP Finland Ltd.
Client’s consultant: Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Co. Ltd., England & Flint & Neill Partnership (London) JV
Contractor: Chenab Bridge Project Undertaking (U/o Afcons Infrastructure Ltd.)
Owner: Northern Railways
