India Gets Its First Cable-Stayed Railway Bridge in Jammu & Kashmir

JAMMU & KASHMIR (Metro Rail News): The Anji Khad Bridge which is India’s first cable-stayed rail bridge finished its construction recently. The bridge contains 96 cables with the cable length ranging from 82 m to 295 m, and a total length of cable strands is 653 km.

The most difficult Udampur-Srinagar-Baramulla-Rail Link (USBRL) Project of Indian Railways is building the bridge in the Reasi district of Jammu & Kashmir.

The bridge is situated in the Himalayas’ young fold mountains, which have exceedingly challenging geological features such as faults, folds, and thrusts and the area’s high seismic risk. Therefore, IIT, Roorkee and IIT, Delhi conducted thorough site-specific investigations.

Due to space restrictions, a unique hybrid foundation has been used on the Katra end to stabilise the mountain slopes supporting one of the main span’s foundations.

The bridge’s Srinagar end saw most of the construction work, including the central pylon with a 40-meter-deep hybrid foundation and the auxiliary viaduct.
The bridge has an overall length of 725 metres; its primary span is 473.25 metres.
The bridge has been divided into four parts to simplify construction and account for typical site conditions.

Such as a 120 m long approach viaduct (also known as an “ancillary viaduct”) on the Reasi side, as well as a 38 m long approach bridge on the Katra end (CA2)with the main bridge, crossing deep valley (473.25 m cable-stayed portion), and central embankment (94.25 m), situated between the main bridge and an approach (ancillary) viaduct.

This bridge features a single central pylon that rises 331 metres above the riverbed and is 193 metres tall from the top of the foundation.
For the main pylon construction, 40-meter-deep micro piles around the 20-meter hybrid well foundation were used.

With a single railway line 3.75 metres wide and a footpath 1.5 metres wide on either side of the deck, the bridge has a total width of 15 metres.
For boosting building activities at heights up to 193 m, a cutting-edge tower crane (imported from Spain) with a 40 T capacity and an extensible height of up to 205 metres is being deployed.

In addition, numerous sensors were installed at various points on the Anji Khad Bridge for an integrated monitoring system. The Italian firm ITALFERR (a member of the Italian State Railways Group “Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane”) was given the task of carrying out detailed design and construction supervision (DDC) for this famous bridge, and the UK firm COWI was given the task of proof checking.

The line’s design speed is 100 km/h, which presents no challenges for the interaction between trains and structures. Also, the Department of Earthquake Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, conducted site-specific earthquake parameter research to establish the region’s seismo-tectonic framework.