Large Structures and Infrastructures for Environmentally Constrained and Urbanised Areas

A Comparative Study on Viaduct Structure around New High-speed Railway

Stations
Bin YAN
Graduate Student
Central South University,
Changsha, China
zhixu1984@gmail.com
Bin Yan, born 1984, received his
civil engineering degree from
Central South University in 2007.
He is studying at the department
of bridge engineering of Central
South University as a Ph.D.

Gonglian DAI
Professor,
Central South University,
Changsha, China
daigong@vip.sina.com
Gonglian Dai, born 1964,
received engineering PHD degree
from Central South University.
He is the dean of department of
bridge engineering in Central
South University now.

Summary
Based on study of three new viaducts in Wuhan, Guangzhou and Yueqing Station, a series of
aspects have been compared, including structural system, cross-sectional form, force characteristics,
construction methods and period, operation maintenance, appearance modelling and material
consumption. Then, three representative bridge forms have been analyzed, including prestressed
concrete beam bridge, steel bridge and hollow slab beam bridge. The railway station Viaducts are
characterized by a series of unique designs. Part of the conclusions has certain reference
significance to the choice of an elevated bridge structure. Some of the problems reflected should be
a high priority during bridge design.
Keywords: Viaduct structure around railway stations, prestressed concrete beam bridge, steel beam
bridge, hollow slab beam bridge

1.

Introduction

The viaducts around newly-built high-speed railway stations are the infrastructure in the densely
populated area. Due to restrictions on construction and existing lines, the curve radius is generally
small. Being near the subway and close to the station house, the construction condition is complex.
The bridge span arrangement should be coordinated with the station building. Besides, as bridges in
the city, they require not only safety and economy but also attractive appearance.
Based on study of three newly-built viaducts in Wuhan, Guangzhou and Yueqing Station and from
the aspects of structural system, cross-sectional form, force characteristics, construction methods
and period, operation maintenance, appearance modeling and material consumption, three
representative bridge forms applied around the railway stations have been analyzed and compared,
including prestressed concrete beam bridge, steel beam bridge and hollow slab beam bridge. The
railway station Viaducts are characterized by a series of unique designs, including adopting hollow
slab beam to reduce weight, adjusting the layout of bridge span in order to cross the metro lines and
avoid the doors and windows of the station house, using bracket structure to ensure the alignment
with aesthetics, setting the vase-type piers to create a beautiful bridge environment.

2.

Engineering background

Fig. 1: Virtual Image of Yueqing Station

Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou railway line is 282.38km,

which is a part of the "Four Vertical and Four
Horizontal" passenger railway lines in "Long-term
Railway Network Plan". The design speed is
200km/h, which can be raised to 250~300km/h.
Yueqing Station is located at Xiaruan Village. The
building area of the station house is 17000 square
meters.

34TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BRIDGE AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING, VENICE, 2010

The Wuhan station site on newly-built WuhanGuangzhou passenger line is located near Lake
Yangchun in Qingshan District of Wuhan City. The
Wuhan station is the station of present longest and
fastest passenger special railway line in the world.
It is the new-structural railway station of the first
"Integrated Bridge and Building" in China. It is also
the first "seamless" transfer railway station, which
will enable the railway, trunk, subway and highway
Fig. 2: Virtual Image of Wuhan Station
to be closely linked up.
The whole building of the newly-built Guangzhou
Station includes the main station house, columnfree platform canopy, elevated parking, car parking
site under the platform, and production houses,
with a total construction area of 377.6 thousand
square meters. New Guangzhou Station is designed
to highlight Lingnan characteristics, and other
features of being people-oriented, flow-line clear,
green energy and technology as the first. An
important feature of New Guangzhou Station is"no transfer", which makes the people take metro
Fig. 3: Virtual Image of Guangzhou Station
easily.

3.

Structural system and the bridge span layout

The viaducts around Yueqing Station is divided into five groups, including the main three viaduct in
front of the station (Spans are 13 ~18m), way-in ramp (5x15m), way-out ramp (6x15m), Way-out
Access and Way-in Access, which are respectively concrete-reinforced continuous plate girder
bridge.
10 continuous girder bridges are built by prestressed concrete box girder on the east and west sides
of the viaduct around Newly-built Wuhan Station, whose spans are 29 ~ 33m.
The viaduct around the new Guangzhou station is divided into 10 bridges, which respectively spans
24 ~ 33m and is made of steel-concrete composite box girder. The bridge is paved with reinforced
concrete and connected with steel box girder by the shear pin. See Table 1.
Table 1: the Viaduct Forms Comparison of Wuhan, Guangzhou and Yueqing Station
Item

Structural System

Wuhan
Station
Guangzhou
Station
Yueqing
Station

Prestressed Concrete
Continuous Girder
Steel-Concrete Composite
Continuous Girder
Reinforced Concrete
Continuous Girder

Section Form

Girder Height
(m)

Span Range
(m)

Curve Mini-radius
(m)

Box Girder

2.068

29~33

25

Box Girder

1.4

24~33

53.85

Beam Girder

0.8

8.5~18

85

Due to the conflict of the proposed location and the station house foundation, and that the piers
should try to avoid the doors and windows of the house, the span design of the Way-in Access
viaduct around Yueqing station is (13.05 +14.7 +8.85 +8.79) m originally and then is set as (13.05
+14.7 +8.85 +8.5) m after several adjustments. Single column piers along the bridge and shaped
abutments are designed to meet the structural requirement and in line with the doors and windows
location of station house in layout.
Due to the restriction of the landform and station house location, the first viaduct in the east around
Wuhan station (30.08 +29.5 +30.5 +27.5 m) must take ultra-small radius of 25m. To make the
bridge more beautiful, single column pier has been adopted. The forced state is complex, which
shows as follows: The bending and torsion is coupling. Restraint methods have great impact on
internal forces, reaction forces and deformation. Negative support reaction force is the major factor
to control design. Therefore, measures of eccentricity of bearing cross-bridge adjusting, bearing

Large Structures and Infrastructures for Environmentally Constrained and Urbanised Areas

transverse strength accounting, anti-collapsing of reinforced web and tension at both ends should be
taken to optimize the design.
The impact of the subway lines is taken into consideration when designing the bridge span-layout
options of the viaduct around Guangzhou Station. Something has also been adjusted accordingly in
bridge span layout.

4.

Confirmation of section form

The largest span of the Way-in and Way-out Viaduct around Yueqing Station is 15m, which is
designed solid plate girder with the bridge width of 6.5m, and 4.5m, the beam height of 0.8m. See
the Fig. 4, Fig. 5.

Fig. 4: Section form of way-in viaduct (unit: cm) Fig. 5: Section form of way-out viaduct (unit: cm)
Maximum span of the Main Viaducts around the Station is 18m, which is large. In order to reduce
the bending moment of mid-span caused by deadweight, 11 holes are designed in the plate girder,
with the radius of 20cm, and 20cm respectively from the top edge and the bottom edge. See Fig. 6
for its layout. To facilitate pattern making, 7
holes are also designed in the sections of the
Way-in and Way-out Ramp.
By calculating, the way of designing holes can
effectively reduce deadweight, save material
usage (Table 2), and reduce concrete
consumption of 16.7% ~ 17.2% under the same
Fig. 6: Section form of main viaduct (unit: cm) conditions. But the consumption of cylinder
mold is not included.
Table 2 Effect of Holes on the Deadweight of Plate Girder
Top Plate Width
(m)
Main Viaducts
11.95
Way-in / Way-out Ramps
8.5
Item

Section Area
(m2)
8.03
5.27

Holes
11
7

Optimized Section Area

(m2)
6.65
4.39

Deadweight
Reducing Rate
17.2%
16.7%

Comparing stress and vertical displacement (Table 3) under the action of dead load before and after
making holes by taking the second Main Viaduct (15 +15 +18 +15 m) around Yueqing Station for
example, the following conclusions can be obtained: mid-span stress dropped to 14% and the
vertical displacement reduced by about 1.2% after increasing holes. Therefore, increasing holes in
plate girder can effectively improve its force performance.
Table 3 Comparison of Solid Plate and Hollow Plate Beam of the Main Viaduct
Solid Plate Beam
Hollow Plate Beam
Span
Stress
Tensile Stress of
Vertical
Tensile Stress of
Vertical
Decreasing
Position Length
Lower Margin Displacement Lower Margin Displacement
(m)
Rate
(mPa)
(mm)
(mPa)
(mm)
Mid of
15
3.164
4.5
2.774
3.7
12.33%
Side Span
Mid-span 15
1.245
0.6
1.064
0.5
14.54%
Mid-span 18
3.14
5.2
2.676
4.3
14.78%
Mid of
15
2.603
3.0
2.003
2.4
23.05%
Side Span
Note: Relative displacement decreasing rate is the ratio of vertical displacement to section area.

Relative
Displacement
Decreasing Rate
1.29%
1.13%
1.17%
1.24%

34TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BRIDGE AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING, VENICE, 2010

Hole-making in plate girder increases the difficulty of construction. Pipe mold needs to be fixed
firmly. Otherwise, hidden trouble would be caused if fluctuations-occurring in the process of
pouring concrete would affected the thickness of the roof, which should be paid much attention to
in the construction.
Box-section is good at anti-torsional.
Prestressed concrete continuous box girder is
taken in the viaduct design of newly-built
Wuhan Station. Standard section is single-box
dual-chamber inclined web. The thickness of
inclined web in the middle span is 40cm and
60cm near the beams; the web thickness in the
curved bridge is 50cm and 70cm near the
beams. The height of the standard beam is
Fig. 7: Standard section form of viaduct around 206.8cm. Drainage slope of 1.5% is designed
in the surface, which is formed by box girder
Wuhan Station (unit: cm)
web height. The width of box girder top plate
is 9m. The standard section shows in Fig. 7.

Fig. 8: Section form of viaduct around Guangzhou

Station (unit: mm)

5.

Continuous steel box girder is taken in the

viaduct around Guangzhou Station and the
standard cross-section adopts single-box threechamber and vertical web. The width of the
top plate is 10.5m, and diaphragm width is 2m.
The height of the beam is 1.4m. Top plate
takes U-rib while bottom plate takes H-beams.
See Fig. 8 for the standard section in the
middle of the span of the box girder.

The construction period, operation and maintenance comparison

Cast-in-place is taken in the construction viaduct around Yueqing Station, which will affect
transportation during the construction period. In the operation and maintenance, as a reinforced
concrete bridge, cracks are likely to cause structural damage.
Besides concretes having conservation cycle in the viaduct around Wuhan Station, the pre-stressed
tendons is allowed to be tensioned only when the box-girder concrete strength and elastic modulus
to meet the design strength of more than 85%. The construction cycle is relatively the longest in
three. In the operation and maintenance, the whole design of full prestressing components increases
the stiffness and improves its durability and anti-cracking ability compared with normal reinforced
concrete bridge.
Prefabrication component of the steel box girder bridges around Guangzhou Station are
manufactured in the factory, which can be transported to the construction site for installing only
after meeting the requirements after trial. So the period of setting up is short, effects on the traffic
under the bridge is small. But the welding quality control becomes a major problem of construction.
Damaged steel box girder components are easy to repair and replace. However, the anti-corrosion of
the steel gets into the important issue in operation and maintenance.

6.

Comparative study on material consumption

The materials quantities per square meter of deck are selected for comparison in the three forms of
viaduct (excluding processing fees and transportation costs). See Table 4.
Table 4 Material Quantities Comparison per Square Meter of Deck
Bridge Type

Bridge Span Layout (m)

Material Type

Surface Consumption
per Square Meter

Steel Box Girder Bridge

4x32.75

Q345qC

648.133 kg

Large Structures and Infrastructures for Environmentally Constrained and Urbanised Areas

around Guangzhou Station

Axes A4~A8
The First Joint of Viaduct
around Yueqing Station

13.95+13.6+14.75+15

East Ninth Joint of Viaduct

Around Wuhan Station

3x33

Q235qB

4.312 kg

Concrete C40
Steel Bar HRB335
Steel Bar Q235
Steel Bar HRB335
Concrete C50
Prestressed Strand

0.518 m3
207.954 kg
3.642 kg
199.301 kg
0.825 m3
33.769 kg

From the table we can see that the bridge made by steel box girder is the most expensive while the
price of reinforced concrete plate girder bridge and prestressed box girder bridge is more or less the
same (about 1 / 2 of steel box girder). The span of reinforced concrete plate girder bridge is smaller
(about 13 ~ 15m), which is only equivalent to 1 / 2 of the span of prestressed box girder bridge
(about 33m) and the infrastructure cost of the former is double of the latter. However, the
construction period of steel box girder bridge and reinforced concrete plate girder bridge is shorter
while construction steps of prestressed box girder bridge are complex; construction period is long;
its processing fees and construction machinery fees are not be included. Their economy is still to be
studied.

7.

The optimization of configuration

According to original plan, single-column pier with diameter of 1m is used in the construction of
Yueqing station infrastructure. Two bearings could not be put on the handover pier. Three schemes
to expand the top are designed, including the cap beam, broken line and circular line (Fig. 9). Due
to that the height of the plate girder is small (80cm), the large capping beam plan does not meet the
requirement of simple and beautiful city bridge. After compared the broken line and the circular line
plans, the vase-type pier reflecting elegant style is finally chosen. To maintain consistency, all the
piers are built into this type in order to create a beautiful light space under the bridge.
In the viaduct design around Wuhan Station, the
bracket and cap beams (Fig. 10) are set in order to
make the linear shape of body smooth and level.
Compared with previous cap beam, slim and light
visual feeling could be gotten while saving
materials.
The bracket plan is also taken in the viaduct design
around Guangzhou Station. Beautified circular
section is taken similarly to Yueqing Station in the
pier design (Fig. 11). Pier top expansion section
adopts curve, assorting with the upper steel box
Fig. 9: Comparison of pier plans of the
girder, which gives people the power of a firm and
steady sense.
viaduct around Yueqing Station

Fig. 10: Sketch of cap beam and bracket of the

viaduct around Wuhan Station

8.

Fig. 11: Pier plan of the viaduct around

Guangzhou Station

Conclusion

For the viaduct design around Railway Station, the following views are available for reference:
The span layout should be in harmony with station house foundation, windows and doors and avoid
subway lines. Special design is needed if ultra-small radius curved prestressed concrete beams is

34TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BRIDGE AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING, VENICE, 2010

taken.
A suitable bridge form should be chosen based on local situation in the scheme design of the
viaduct around the railway stations.
The shape of bridge must be compatible with the urban environment. The bracket is taken to make
girder body linear, flat and smooth. Vase-type bridge pier is adopted to create a pleasant
environment, etc. They all can be referential plans.

References
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[6]

Municipal Roads and Ancillary Works at Guangzhou New Railway Station, 2009
Viaduct around Yueqing Station. Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou New railway Construction Plans,
2009
New Wuhan Station Building Construction Design, 2009
ZENG Min, Seismic Response Analysis and Quake-reducing by Isolation Studies on Small
Radius Curved Girder Bridge, Central South University: Master's Degree Thesis, 2009
ZHENG Jian, China's High-speed Railway Bridges, Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2008
PENG Jian-Bing, CHENG Weihe, Exploring on Issues of Urban Elevated Continuous
Curve Steel Box Girder Design, Urban Roads and Flood Control, 2000