100 m-long ‘Make in India’ steel bridge launched over 4 railway tracks for bullet train project

NEW DELHI: The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited has successfully launched a steel bridge over four railway tracks — two of western railways and two DFC tracks between Kim and Sayan — for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project.

The bridge comprises of two spans — 100 mt, 60 mt — and will facilitate double line standard gauge rail track. This crucial infrastructure development involved the crossing of four major tracks — two western railways and two DFC tracks and an irrigation canal, a release said.

The 100 mt span was launched over the western railways & DFC tracks from January 28, 2025 to February 5, 2025 while the 60 mt span will be erected over the irrigation canal located adjacent to the tracks at the construction site.

A 100-meter-long steel bridge, weighing 1,432 metric tonnes, has been successfully launched over four railway tracks at a 32-degree skew angle between Surat and Bharuch for the Mumbai- Ahmedabad Bullet Train project. pic.twitter.com/YsQ8eB5TK1

— NHSRCL (@nhsrcl) February 6, 2025

For launching of 100-metre-long steel bridge (weighing 1432 metric tonnes) over Western Railway and DFCCIL tracks, 84 metre-long launching nose weighing about 525 metric tonnes is used.

“This 14.3 m wide, 100 mt span steel bridge having 1432 MT weight has been fabricated at a RDSO approved workshop located at Bhuj, Gujarat, and transported to the site by road for installation. The 100 mt span of this steel bridge was assembled at the Ahmedabad end approach of site at a height of 14.5 m from the ground on temporary structure and was pulled with automatic mechanism of 2 no. of semi-automatic jacks, each of capacity of 250 ton using 50 mm diameter Mac-Loy bars. The height of the piers at this location is 12 mt”, the release said.

The bridge assembly of 100 mt span utilized approximately 60,000 Nos.(100 m) of Tor-Shear Type High Strength (TTHS) bolts designed for a 100-year lifespan. The two spans of the bridge are painted with C5 system painting and will be rested over elastomeric bearings.The launching was completed with intermittent traffic blocks on both Western Railway and DFC tracks. These traffic blocks were essential to ensure the safety and precision of the bridge launch, which was carried out in phases to minimize disruption to regular train and freight services.

The project is being executed meticulously, maintaining the utmost standards of safety and engineering excellence. Leveraging Japanese expertise, India is increasingly utilizing its own technical and material resources to build infrastructure under the ‘Make in India’ initiative. The steel bridges for the Bullet Train Project are a major example of this effort.

This is the sixth steel bridge launched out of the 17 steel bridges planned in Gujarat portion of the alignment. Five steel bridges spanning 70 meters, 100 meters, 230 meters (100 + 130 m), 100 meters and 60 meters are already completed in Surat, Anand, Vadodara (Mumbai Expressway), Silvassa (Dadra & Nagar Haveli) and Vadodara respectively, the release said. (ANI)