With the commencement of the world’s highest Railway Arch Bridge, Indian Railways is all set to witness another engineering marvel! Work on the world’s highest Railway Arch Bridge over Chenab River is going in full swing. Once the project is fully completed, the 1,315 metres long bridge over the river Chenab, will stand at 359 metres above the level of the river bed, making it the highest railway bridge in the world. Recently, The Railway Ministry has recently shared the progress of the Arch Bridge on its Twitter handle. Here, watch the glimpses of the progress of the world’s highest Indian Railways Arch Bridge over the Chenab river:
Last year, the national transporter had set a major construction milestone with the completion of the steel arch of the bridge, which was one of the most difficult parts of the bridge over the river Chenab, the Railway Ministry said. The ministry had mentioned that in recent history, it is the biggest civil-engineering challenge faced by any Indian Railways project. The 5.6-metre last piece of metal was fitted at the highest point and linked the two arch arms that stretch towards each other from both the river banks, thus, completing the arch shape of the bridge. Here are some salient features of the Chenab Bridge arch:
- The bridge has been constructed as a part of the USBRL to link the Kashmir valley to the rest of the country
- This railway bridge arch is said to be 35 meters higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower
- Construction of the bridge involved the fabrication of 28,660 MT steel, 66,000 Cum Concrete, 10 Lakh Cum Earthwork as well as 26 Km motorable roads
- The bridge arch consists of steel boxes. In boxes of the Arch, concrete is said to be filled to improve stability.
- The bridge arch’s weight is 10,619 Million Tonnes
- For the first time in Indian Railways, erection of the members of the arch have been done by overhead cable cranes
- The structural detailing has been done using ‘Tekla’ software
- The structural steel is suitable for temperatures from -10°C to 40°C