Novosibirsk Rail Bridge

The old railway bridge over the Ob
Coordinates 55°00′36″N 82°55′05″E / 55.01000°N 82.91806°E / 55.01000; 82.91806Coordinates: 55°00′36″N 82°55′05″E / 55.01000°N 82.91806°E / 55.01000; 82.91806
Carries single track (in the period 1984-2000 it was double track)
Crosses Ob River
Locale Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
Characteristics
Design Semi-parabolic trusses, which had a support column and one curved top chord with double-latticework.
Material Steel, reinforced concrete, stone
Total length 983.5 m (3,227 ft)
History
Designer Nikolai Belelyubsky
Opened 1897

The Novosibirsk Rail Bridge is a single-track railway bridge, located at the crossroads of the main branch of Trans-Siberian Railway and the Ob River. It was built in the period between 1893 and 1897 to a design by Nikolai Belelyubsky. The location of the bridge was selected by Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky. It is believed that the decision to start the bridge construction near the village of Krivoschekovo (Russian: Кривощёково) was the moment of foundation for the city of Novosibirsk.

Selecting a place to cross the Ob River

The choice on where to construct the future bridge proved to be a major challenge. In accordance with the original draft, the railway line was expected to be laid through the town of Tomsk, and the bridge was intended to be built at the place, where the Ob river had widely swollen every spring. It was not proper for construction and required to select a new location. This work is generally understood to be done by Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky (known not only as a railway engineer, but also as a writer), who offered the only narrow site with rocky outcrops on the surface. He also demanded to lay the railway line further south than originally planned.

At the end of August 1891, a plenary meeting of three large imperial officials took place in the Big Krivoschekovo village. Participants included Head of Department for construction of railways Konstantin Mikhailovsky, State Counsellor Vladimir Berezin (future contractor), as well as Commander of exploration group Vikenti-Ignatsy Royetski. They examined hydrographic data submitted by Royetski on the spot and made the final decision to recommend a line to cross the river Ob on the local cattle wade. That’s how they selected the construction site for the first railway bridge across the Ob River.

Construction and initial design

The bridge was designed by Prof. Nikolai Belelyubsky, an outstanding Russian civil engineer and well-known scientist in the fields of structural mechanics and engineering, who designed a great variety of bridges in Imperial Russia.

The bridge had nine spans resting on the masonry pillars, which were made out of local granite and set on the granite bottom of the river.

When designing the superstructure of the bridge, N.A. Belelyubsky used the semi-parabolic trusses, which had a support column and one curved top chord with double latticework. Due to its high rigidity, double latticework design is capable to reduce the length of a panel and facilitate the weight of parts of a bridge. The presence of support columns in the trusses simplified the device of a heel joint and main frame, as well as facilitated the design of transverse beam connection to the trusses. In addition, Belelubsky used the device of a "free carriageway", which had been already known abroad as the "Russian support method".

The span structures of the bridge, amounting to 4423 tons, were manufactured at the famous Votkinsk plant in Udmurtia under the supervision of contractor General V.I.Berezin. The bridge's trusses towered 17 metres above the low-water level of the river.

The bridge was under construction for 4 years and cost the Russian treasury about 2 million rubles. In 1896, load tests were carried out on the bridge, during which 4 engines crossed it, and on 31 March 1897, the bridge was opened for traffic.

Engineer G.M.Budagov managed all stages of the construction. He remembered with gratitude the time of his cooperation with Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky during the construction of this railway section, bridge and station. He said: "The activities of our witty, talented person and the excellent comrade Nikolai G.Garin-Mikhailovsky made all internal life of the builders and their work some especially colourful and pleasant."

Development and operation

The appearance of the bridge in 2003

In the 1930s, with the completion of a new double track railroad bridge near the town of Komsomolsk (Russian: Комсомольский железнодорожный мост) and a new cargo line around Novosibirsk, the old bridge lost its value and started to be used, as a rule, for passenger trains only.

In April 1984, construction of a second track on the bridge was completed. Construction train 429 of the West-Siberian Railway installed new spans, which consisted of 15.7 thousand metal elements, amounting to 4.5 thousand tons.

Construction of the second track was started as early as 1974. For this purpose, approaches were made of 78 thousand cubic metres of soil covered by a road leading to the left-bank abutment pier for ensuring access of metal, concrete and other building materials to the site of work.

To determine the adequacy of the existing bridge‘s pillars, a group of experts from Leningrad drilled their bodies and the rocks upon which they had rested. The group finally concluded that it would be technically feasible to lay down the second track on existing pillars. The Ministry of Railways of the USSR made the decision to add the second track with subsequent dismantling of the original spans, which load-carrying capacity didn't meet modern requirements anymore.

The spans of the second track were designed by the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineers (Russian: ГИПРОТРАНСПУТЬ). In fact, after the commissioning of a new hydroelectric power plant in Novosibirsk, spring ice drifts have ended around the city, and so the function of the existing wedge-shaped cutwaters was no longer relevant. The bridge builders spliced seven ferroconcrete supports into the cutwaters of existing pillars and constructed two new abutments. The installation of 100 metres long trusses between the supports was carried out by the balanced cantilever method — from support to support — with the use of cranes passing through the top and inside of the trusses.

In 1991, train traffic was halted on the old bridge and its dismantling began in 2000.[1] The new spans were assembled with the use of high-strength bolts, which allowed to quickly install the spans. Thus, for the first time in Russia, the effective method for building a bridge without scaffolding, or any floating means was applied in Novosibirsk. The estimated cost of the project was 8 million Russian rubles. The new bridge's spans were stronger and larger, but not as attractive as the old ones, which had well served for almost a century on the great Siberian Railway.

By now, all of the old bridge's spans have been removed, and the bridge reverted to single track operation. However, the old pillars and abutments were preserved that allows the bridge to be widened to double-track, if necessary. One of the spans has been kept as a museum piece on the riverside promenade of the city.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Главная > История города > Хроники: 1981—2000 — Музей города Новосибирска

Sources

External links

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