Conceptual Design of Cable-Supported Bridges with Road and Railway Traffic

Abstract

The design and analysis of Cable-Supported Bridges (CSBs) with Road and Railway Traffic (RRT) are very complex due to the many boundary conditions and structural options, e.g. the railway tracks and road lanes can be arranged on one level, two levels, staggered levels or mixed levels; the main girders may be truss girders, a single box girder, separated box girders or a combined truss–box girder. With the experience of several national and international competitions, this paper describes the main principles and the conceptual design of CSBs with RRT, mainly focused on the selection of the relative location of road and railway, the options for the main girders and the relative locations of pylon legs. Three CSBs with RRT are presented in more detail to demonstrate how to face the challenges and solve boundary constraints, and to meet the requirements of the client and sustainable development at the conceptual design stage.

Keywords:

• conceptual design
• cable-supported bridges
• truss girder
• box girder
• railway and road traffic

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the good cooperation of gmp International GmbH, Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partner, and Mrs Monika Kwiatkowski in the international design competition and preliminary design of the Ruyi Sea Crossing Bridge, Haikou. The authors thank Dr-Ing. E.h. Reiner Saul, former Managing Director of Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner, for his internal proof checking.