Ingolstadt Freight Railroad Centre

This composite bridge crosses the freight railroad centre near Ingolstadt. The bridge was designed as a very thin road deck on slim piers in order to preserve the view of the city.

Concept

The composite cross-section consists of:

• Two longitudinal main girders (height = 1.20 m, distance = 7.00 m).
• Cross beams at a distance of 7.50 m.
• A cantilevered concrete deck with a thickness of up to 480 mm.

The bridge has a curvature with a radius of 289 m.

The piles are formed by concrete-filled tubes with a diameter of 610 mm. Tests proved that studs between the steel tube and the concrete core could be largely avoided.

Key benefits of using steel

This type of bridge has the following benefits when compared to other bridge construction methods:

• Bearings are avoided.
• Construction costs are reduced while maintenance costs are kept low.
• High aesthetics through the slim construction of the piles.

Design details

The peculiarity of the bridge is the connection between the piles and the superstructure. This is formed by an elastic lamella of S690 steel, 70 mm thick. This steel is able to support high elastic-deformation due to the high yield strength.

The lamella is welded to the main girders in order to from a stiff connection. It is bound into the piles by an erection-suitable plug-in module.

The lamellae can support longitudinal deformation from traffic and temperature changes up to 6 mm. This resulted in an efficient and low maintenance replacement for conventional bearings. This has been used in a number of German bridges over the last few years.

Summary