Budapest to Belgrade

A new high-speed railway connection between the capital cities of Hungary and Serbia is being built with mageba structural bearings and expansion joints used in the construction of many of its bridges.

Construction of a new high-speed 350-kilometre railway line between Budapest and Belgrade started in 2019, as the first stage of a route that will ultimately be extended all the way to the Mediterranean in Athens, Greece. The project i spart of the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ that focuses on the development of transportation infrastructure.

The main viaduct’s bearings

On the first 80-kilometre section of the line to be constructed, from Belgrade to Novi Sad, mageba is supplying the bearings and expansion joints required by almost all of the structures along the route. The most impressive new structure on the first section is shown in the pictures, at Kilometre 59 along the line from Belgrade – a fine new viaduct that is 3300 m long and up to 26 m high. For this structure alone, mageba supplied approximately 300 bearings of various types – RESTON®SPHERICAL bearings, LASTO®BLOCK elastomeric bearings and RESTON®FORCE shear keys – that were designed for loads of between 3000 kN and 30,000 kN, and for movements of up to 600 mm. Based on this experience to date, with the products successfully designed, manufactured and installed, we believe we are in a strong position to be contracted to do the same for the next section, from Novi Sad to the Hungarian border, when work commences on that section this year.

Bridge designer: CIP institute Serbia
Contractor: Russian Railways
Owner: Serbian Railways

mageba is supplying almost all of the bearings and joints needed for the first 80-kilometre phase of the new high-speed railway connection being built from Belgrade to Budapest

The first phase of the route includes impressive structures such as this, 59 km from Belgrade – a fine new viaduct of length 3300 m and up to 26 m high

For this structure alone, mageba supplied approximately 300 bridge bearings. Proper installation of the bearings was ensured by mageba’s installation partner in Serbia, Produkt BG

The bearings required for each of the viaduct’s many piers required to be designed to satisfy the varying requirements in terms of loads, movements and rotations

Impressions taken from above during the construction with a view of the installed bearings