Innovative Suspended Superstructure for the Retrofitting of a Steel Truss Railway Bridge

Abstract:

The bridge in Poggio Renatico crossing the Reno river on the railway line between Bologna and Ferrara, consists of steel decks supported by masonry abutments and piers, while foundations and pier caps are made of reinforced concrete. After the 2012 Emilia Earthquake and accounting for the fluvial erosion below the piers foundations, a structural assessment of the bridge was carried out in accordance with to the current Italian rules. Although a sufficient structure capacity against the actual transit loads resulted, the bridge showed some inadequacies with respect to the load models provided by both the national standard for constructions and the guidelines of the Italian railway network company. The retrofitting project consists of an improvement of the structural capacity of all the elements: girders, piers and abutments. An innovative retrofitting solution provides for the strengthening of the existing decks through a suspension system of cables anchored to steel towers standing on both abutments and piers and creating a kind of suspended bridge. The retrofitting is compatible with the normal scheduled interruptions of the rail traffic thereby reducing the maintenance costs of the railway system. The structural solution represents a model easily replicable to solve analogous situations along the railway network.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 763)
• Pages: 1121-1128
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.763.1121
• Online since: February 2018
• Authors: Marco Mezzi*, Gianluca Nestovito, Paolo Petrella, Vincenzo Cefaliello
• Keywords: Railway Bridge, Retrofitting, Steel Bridge, Suspension System

References

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