Igeista Bridge — a New Railway Bridge in Sweden
Bo Eriksson-Vanke
Civil Eng.. National Rail Admin.. Stockholm. Sweden
Introduction
The 2070 m long Igelsta Bridge. now
under construction, will be one of the
largest railway bridges in Europe. It
will be a part of the Grodinge railway
line, a new 30 km long double-track
line south of Stockholm. The new line
will he used for mixed traffic: both
heavy freight trains and new light high-
speed passenger trains. At the south
end of the bridge a new station will he
incorporated.
General Description
The Igelsta Bridge (Fig. 1) crosses a
large navigable channel. a harbour
area and a highway. The channel is
used h' ships of up to 70000 dwt. The
bridge deck is about 49 m above the
water level of the channel. The design
is a double-track bridge branching out
at the station into two single-track
bridges. Two platforms. each 35 m
above ground level and 375 m long, are
located between the single-track and
double-track bridges. The platforms
are connected to the new station build-
ing below the bridge by means of ele-
vators and escalators.
The part of the bridge above the chan-
nel has been constructed of postten-
sioned concrete using the balanced
cantilevered method with three spans,
90+158+90 m. and a vertical clear-
ance of 41.6 m. The design height of
the cross section of the box beam at
the piers is 15.4 m and at the mid-span
6.5 m. Over land, the bridge also con-
sists of posttensioned concrete with
spans of about 62 m cast with launch-
able formwork structures with a design
height of 5 m. The double-track bridge
has a total of 33 spans divided into 6
units: 548+338+420÷331÷375+28 m.
Tendering
The owner issued tender documents
for a negotiable turn-key contract with
quality assurance in accordance with
ISO 9000. After a prequalification in
1989. 12 contractors were invited to
Structural Engineering International 4/93
Fig. I. I/ic IgeLsia Bridge. .%Ia' /993
tender. The tender documents present-
ed two alternatives: proposal A. with
outline drawings and preliminary de-
sign set up by the owner, and proposal
B. giving only basic restrictions.
In April 1990, five contractors or joint
ventures representing Sweden. Nor-
way, France, Italy and Turkey present-
ed their tenders. Totally 15 proposals
were presented. 10 of which were pro-
posal B. The basic proposal A given in
the tender documents was the niost
competitive, however, with an estimat-
ed total cost of approximately 778 mil-
lion Swedish Crowns. After a period
of negotiation and hard competition. a
Swedish-Norwegian joint venture was
awarded the contract.
Design Considerations
Loads
Besides the standard specification
loads, the bridge is designed to with-
stand ship collisions. The piers located
close to the channel are dcsiiicd to
withstand the impact of So NIX of a
ship collision in the direction of the
channel. The structure is designed to
absorb a 25 NIX impact from 0 to 3 m
above water level at right angles to the
channel. In the direction of the chan-
nel, the superstructure should be capa-
ble of absorbing an impact of I NIX.
Foundations
The bridges over land are founded
directly on rock or on concrete piles
270 x 270 mm with a bearing capacity
of 1.1 NIX. For the bridge construction
above water, there are three footings
founded on about 60 m long steel pipe
piles with a diameter of 800 mm and
a thickness of material of 14 mm filled
with reinforced concrete. The piles are
skin friction-bearing or end-hearing.
The concrete and reinforcement are
designed to be capable of carrying the
whole pile force. should the steel pipe
he damaged by corrosion. The niaxi-
mum force of the pile is 5.6 NIX. The
groups of piles below the piers on the
channel carry a maximum of about
200 NIX vertical loads. There the foun-
dations are protected by rock filling.
The corners of the piers are chamfered
and the walls taper to the tops in the
cross direction of the bridge.
Superstructures
The superstructures both on land and
above water are box girders. The free
cantilever bridge is tensioned with
about 100 cables: the double-track
bridges with about 50. and the single-
track bridges with about 30 cables with
an ultimate load of 3.2 NIX. The free
cantilever bridge is also tensioned with
vertical tendons in the webs of the box
Recent Structures 223
 _
12.0
UT_
Fig. 2: Cross section of superstructure
girder. On the bridge deck. 0.6 m of
gravel ballast has been placed. On
each side of the rails, a concrete wall
has been cast to stop trains from
running off the bridge after a derail-
ment and also to reduce the noise ema-
nating from the wheels. Between the
bridge monoliths, movement joints are
arranged for a movement of 0.5 m. All
along the inside of the superstructure.
there are transport connections with
lighting and power outlets for inspec-
tion and maintenance with access via
lockable manhole covers (Fig. 2).
Platforms
At the station, there are two 375 m
long platforms (Fig. 3) located be-
tween the double-track bridge and the
two single-track bridges. The construc-
tion consists of an 11 m wide concrete
slab on a steel framework with the
Fig. 3: Cross section of p/arfor,ns
224 Recent Structures
12.0
Lfl,
0'
-
5,5 1
width 6.6 m and height 6.0 m. The
frame structures are placed on can-
tilevers on piers to the bridges, and
thus have the same width of span as
those bridges. The two frame struc-
tures are attached to the piers of the
double-track bridge by means of fixed
bearings. Therefore, when braking.
the train can cause horizontal move-
ments of the platforms. In order to re-
duce these movements, dampers which
transmit the horizontal forces to ad-
joining parts of the bridge will be fitted
at each end of the station sections of
the bridge.
Construction over Land
Foundations
Most of the bridge piers are founded
on rock. The foundations are rein-
forced and cast directly on the rock. cD
For some foundations. sheetpiles are
used. For 13 foundations. endbearing
concrete piles are driven to the rock.
The foundations are reinforced and
cast. ©
The piers are constructed to full height
by a climbing formwork. ®
Superstructure
On each pier a yoke is fixed on which
the framework is launched. ®
The rear edge of the framework is sus-
pended on the cantilever of the previ-
ously cast section. ®
The formwork is adjusted. Bottom and
walls of the box are reinforced and
cast. The inner formwork is dismount-
ed and the bridge deck is formed. The
bridge deck is reinforced and cast. ®
The posttensioning cables are stressed
when the concrete has developed suffi-
cient strength. ®
The posttensioning cable ducts are
grouted for protection. The frame-
work is lowered, divided and launched
forward by hydraulic jacks. and a new
section can be started. ®
Construction above Water
Foundations
Mud and clay is dredged down to solid
sand and gravel. Stone and gravel are
filled by bottom opening barges till
about 10 111 under water level. The
piles are driven froni a pontoon. The
steel pipe piles are 60 m long with a di-
ameter of 800 mm.
The bottom is adjusted by divers.
Prefabricated pile sheet cofferdams
(26X 17 m) with a height of 12 ni and
a weight of about 24() tons are placed
by a pontoon crane.
A reinforced concrete slab is cast un-
der water. The cofferdam and the
steelpipe piles are emptied of water.
Location, inclination and straightness
of the piles is controlled. The piles are
cut to the right level. The piles are re-
inforced and cast. The bottom slab is
reinforced and cast. The piers are con-
structed to 3.5 m above water level. ®
The cofferdam is removed. The rock
filling is completed up to 1 m above
water level, providing ship collision
protection capable of resisting the im-
pact of a 70000 ton ship at 7 knots
speed.
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Superstructure Owner/Engineers:
Dimensions
Swedish National Rail Administration
The piers are constructed and cast to
full height by a climbing formwork. Service date: Total length
The free cantilever form travellers are January 1995 double-track bridge 2070 m
erected. © The bridge is cast in steps single-track (x 2) 714 m
of 5 m in both directions from the piers
max. height above water 49 m
in balance. The posttensioned rein- Facts about the Bridge
forcement gives sufficient strength. mm. vertical clearance 41.6 rn
The Igelsta concrete box girder bridge Width
has been analysed and built for a de- Double-track bridge 12 m
sign speed of 250 km/h. It includes the
Single-track bridge 7.5 m
following facts:
Quantities

Concrete piles 20000 m

Steel pipe piles 6000 m
Concrete 68000 m3
Formwork 167000 m
Reinforcement 7000 t
Posttensioning cables 120000 m
Dredging 230000 m3
Rock filling 330000 m3
Gravel filling 60000 m3

Railway

Rail tracks 5000 m

Switch points 6
Expansions joints 10
Contact line posts 117
Contact lines 16000 volts
Plus signal plants. interlockings and
fiberoptic telecommunication cables
/ lie Igelsui Bridge Iuriizg cm siriiction

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