Mumbai – Ahmedabad Bullet Train: WDFC Bridge’s Trial Assembly Completed

Karbonsteel Engineering on a subcontract from Larsen & Toubro – IHI Infrastructure Systems has completed trial assembly on the first 100 meter span of GAD 15 bridge for the 508.17 km Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR Bullet Train) project.

This open web girder (OWG) steel bridge of MAHSR’s Package P4 (X & Y) along with another 130m bridge will be launched over the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) located at chainage 333+5 just north of Bharuch in Gujarat (view on Google Maps).

The combined 230 meter long bridge at GAD-15 within 237.1 km civil Package C-4 (Vadodara – Zaroli) will utilize approximately 4710 MT of steel and consist of 4200+ individual elements fabricated and assembled together.

The first 100m span weighing approximately 2000 MT was assembled and inspected in 10 months at Karbonsteel’s facility located in Umargam, Gujarat. Here are some snaps shot in May while assembly was underway:

Larsen & Toubro – IHI Infrastructure Systems Consortium was awarded MAHSR Bullet Train Package P4 X & Y’s Rs 1389.70 crore contract by National High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd. (NHRCL) in January 2021.

L&T – IHI Consortium’s scope involves fabricating and transporting 28 steel truss bridges requiring an estimated 70,865 MT of steel. They went on to subcontract work to several bridge fabrication companies like Zetwerk and Karbonsteel Engineering in 2022.

Some recent snaps by Karbonsteel:

Here are some key features of the bridge via Karbonsteel’s LinkedIn post:

• Length: 100 + 130 meters continuous span
• Slight Curvature Bridge at L10 node point
• 3 point support only at L0, L10, L23
• 843 Individual Members fabricated and assembled together in 100 mtr span
• 2384 Individual Members fabricated and will be assembled together in 130 mtr span
• 83.2 mm camber is maintained between node point L0, L10
• 182 mm camber is maintained between node point L10, L23
• Customized high-quality steel plates manufactured specifically for this project
• Metallic bearings imported from Japan
• Members are welded in Butt Joint and special non-destructive testing (Like RT , UT) are carried out under the supervision of IHI, International welding experts & L&T team
• Five coat paint system used considering for optimal protection and longevity conforming to C-5 painting system of Japan Road Association’s “Handbook for Corrosion Protection of Steel Road Bridges”
• Complete bridge fabrication, assembly and painting is done under the guidance of IHI Japanese team.

An anti-rust primer is expected to be applied before the girder is dismantled and transported to its launch site. Looking at other recent OWG launches, I reckon we’re at least 12 months away from seeing that happen.

Back in June, M G Contractors launched a 130m OWG at GAD 1967 for Package P-1(C) over the Delhi – Mumbai Expressway (NE-4) just north of Vadodara – see details and pics.

For more updates, check out the High Speed Rail section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Like this post? Get early-access to updates and support the site over here.

– TMRG