Bangkok bridge bearings and joints

The new Rama III cable-stayed bridge in the Thai capital has now been equipped with mageba finger-type expansion joints at both ends and the connecting ring-road viaduct is being constructed using over one thousand mageba pot bearings.

Construction of the new Rama III – Dao Khanong Expressway Bridge in Bangkok, a cable-stayed structure over the Chao Phraya River, is expected to be completed in late 2023. With H-shaped pylons at both ends of its main span of 450 m, it will be the widest river bridge in Thailand – therefore requiring very long expansion joints in its superstructure. This need was met by mageba’s design and supply of 68 m of TENSA®FINGER expansion joints of type RSFD (with cantilever design), with a movement capacity of 400 mm, which have been installed recently.

In addition to these expansion joints, mageba is also supplying 1,102 RESTON®POT bearings to support the superstructure of a five-kilometre stretch of viaduct on the Western Bangkok Outer Ring Road Expressway, which leads to the bridge. 58 of these bearings are designed to also resist uplift forces, and the largest bearings can support vertical loads of up to 12,750 kN.

Supplying huge numbers of bearings for viaducts in Bangkok is something mageba has done repeatedly over the past decade, as best exemplified by three major projects to extend the city’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system:

So if you need hundreds of bearings for your next infrastructure project – wherever it may be in the world – you know where to find a reliable supply partner!

Consultant: Asian Engineering Consultants Corp., Ltd (AEC)
Contractor: CH. KARNCHANG PLC.
Owner: Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT)

The new Rama III – Dao Khanong Expressway Bridge in Bangkok is expected to open in late 2023

The project also includes the construction of a five-kilometer stretch of viaduct on the Western Bangkok Outer Ring Road Expressway (Source: www.aec-th.com)

The TENSA®FINGER (type RSFD) expansion joints required for the cable-stayed bridge were manufactured in mageba’s Shanghai factory

Loading of the cantilever finger-type expansion joints into a shipping container for optimal protection during transport to site

Installation of one of the TENSA®FINGER expansion joints in the deck of the new Rama III – Dao Khanong Expressway bridge

Two of the 1,102 RESTON®POT bearings also supplied by mageba for the Western Bangkok Outer Ring Road Expressway, which leads to the cable-stayed bridge

Packing and wrapping of the bearings in Shanghai for optimal protection during their transport to site in Bangkok

Like the expansion joints, the bearings were also transported to site in closed shipping containers to prevent damage or deterioration of any sort during the journey