BANDRA-WORLI SEA LINK

G.GOPI
16001D1103
 FEATURES OF SEA LINK
• First Cable-Stay Bridge in India in open sea
• Its weight is equivalent to 50,000 African elephant
• The length of the steel wires used is equivalent to the circumference of the earth
• The height of the cable-stayed tower is 128 m, which is equal to a 43-storey building
• A total of 424 cables were used for both Bandra cable stay as well as Worli cable
staybridges.
• The cables are made of high tensile steel and are designed to take the maximum load
of 900 tons.
• 92,000 tons of cement was utilized to make BWSL
• Use of polytron disc in bearings on piers for first time in india.
• Concrete of grade m60 is used with Micro silica slurry is used for increasing durability.
• Fusion bonded epoxy coated reinforcement as anti-corrosive treatment
• Osterberg technology used to check pile strength
 Stay cable
• Stay cables used was ´Parallel Wire Stay Cables´.
They were manufactured by Shanghai Pujiang
Cable Co Ltd China.
• Each cable consisted of a group of different
number of steel wires. Each wire was made up of
high tensile steel. Diameter of single wire was 7
mm with a breaking limit of 6.28 tonne.
• Six different sizes of cables were used in the cable-
stayed portion. The difference between them was
only on the basis of number of steel wires in each
cable. Six different types used were of 61, 73, 85,
91, 109 and 121 steel wires.
• Group of these wires was packed in two layers of
High Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE) material to
protect them from atmospheric effects
 NECESSITY FOR SEA LINK
• It takes commuters nearly an hour to travel the 8 km distance from
Mahim to Worli
• Increased accidents and noise pollution
• Average journey speed 13 kmph due to traffic congestion
• Number of traffic signals are 23
• Distance 8 km
 Benefits of project
• Travel distance reduced to 5.60 km
• Number of signals reduced to 4
• Average journey speed 80kmph
• Reduced accidents and traffic congestion
• Gradual reduction in noise pollution
 STAGES IN THE PROJECT
• The entire project was originally conceived as one large project comprising,
different
components, but in order to accelerate the overall construction schedule, the
project has been divided into five construction packages :-
• Package I: Construction of flyover over Love Grove junction at Worli
• Package II: Construction of cloverleaf interchange at Mahim intersection
• Package III: Construction of solid approach road from the Mahim intersection up
to the start of the Toll Plaza on the Bandra side and a public promenade
• Package IV: Construction of Cable-Stayed Bridges together with viaduct
approaches
extending from Worli up to the Toll Plaza at Bandra end, Intelligent Bridge System
(IBS).
• Package V: Improvement to Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Road
• Package IV is the largest and main phase of Bandra-Worli Sea Link Project.
 Details of Package - IV
• Main features of this technically challenging package are :
Details of Package - IV
Main Bridge Structure
The bridge consists of twin continuous concrete box girder bridge sections for
traffic in each direction. Each bridge section, except at the cable-stayed portion, is
supported on piers typically spaced at 50 meters. Each section is meant for four
lanes of traffic, complete with concrete barriers and service side-walks on one
side.
• The bridge layout is categorized into three different parts:
• Part 1 - The north-end approach structure.
• Part 2 - The Cable-Stayed Bridge at Bandra channel is with 50m -250m-250m-
50mspan Arrangement and the Cable-Stayed Bridge at Worli channel is with 50m-
50m-150m-50m-50m span arrangement.
• Part 3 - The south end approach structure.
 The north-end approach structure
• The bridge is arranged in units of typically six continuous spans of 50
meters each.
• The segment length varies from 3,000 to 3,200 mm (9.8 to 10.5 ft)
• Expansion joints are provided at each end of the units.
• The foundation consists of 1.5 meters diameter drilled piles (4 nos.
for each pier) with pile caps. Bridge bearings are of Disc Type.
• The bridge has been built utilising the concept of Pre-Cast, post-
tensioned, segmental concrete box girder sections.
Construction of piers
 The Cable-Stayed Bridge
• The cable-stayed portion of the Bandra channel is 600 meters in overall length between
expansion joints and consists of two 250-meter cable supported main spans flanked by
50
meters conventional approach spans. A centre tower, with an overall height of 128
meters
above pile cap level. Cable spacing is 6.0 meters along the bridge deck.
• The cable-stayed portion of the Worli channel is 350 meters in overall length between
expansion joints and consists of one 150 meters cable supported main span flanked by
two 50
meters conventional approach spans. A centre tower, with an overall height of 55 meters,
supports the superstructure above the pile cap level. Cable spacing here is also 6.0
meters along the bridge deck.
• A total of 264 cable stays are used at Bandra channel with cable lengths varying from
approximately 85 meters minimum to nearly 250 meters maximum. The overall tower
configuration is an inverted "Y" shape with the inclined legs oriented along the axis of
the bridge.
• A total of160 cable stays are used at Worli channel with cable lengths varying from
approximately 30meters minimum to nearly 80 meters maximum
cable-stayed portion of the Bandra and Worli
 South End Approach Structure
• This portion of the bridge is similar to the North end approach
structure in construction methodology with span by span match cast
concrete box girder sections. similar to the North end approach
structure in construction methodology with span by span match cast
concrete box girder sections.
 Challenges during execution of the project
Engineering challenges
• Ground stabilisation for precast yard due to lower bearing capacity
• Changes in cable stay design The foundations of the bridge included 604 large
diameter shafts drilled to lengths of 6m to 34m in geotechnical conditions that
varied from highly weathered volcanic material to massive high strength rocks.
Highly uneven bed.
• The superstructure of the approach bridges were the heaviest spans in the country
to
be built with span-by-span method using overhead gantry through a series of vertical
and horizontal curves.
• A one-of-its-kind, diamond shaped 128m high concrete tower with flaring lower legs,
converging upper legs, unified tower head housing the stays and a throughout
varying cross section along the height of tower.
• Erection of 20000 MT Bandra cable-stayed deck supported on stay cables within a
very close tolerance of deviations in plan and elevation.
 Ground stabilisation for pre-cast yard
The challenges were varied and started right from the pre-cast yard.
• The pre-cast yard was located on reclaimed land. The yard caters to casting, storing
and handling of pre-cast segments for the project totalling 2,342 in numbers. The
storage capacity requirement of yard was to be about 470 units. As the area available
was limited, the segments were to be stored in stacks of three layers.
• The bearing capacity of the ground was of paramount importance to enable three-
tier storage of segments. As the pre-cast area was on reclaimed land, the bearing
capacity of existing ground was very poor and found to be less than 2 T/sq m.
• Hence, detailed ground stabilisation was carried out, which involved the following:
• Excavation of the ground to a depth of ~ 2.5 m
• Strengthening the ground using rubble soling and filling the voids with sand.
• The soling thus done was compacted layer by layer using vibratory rollers.
• Total area of the pre-cast yard was covered with a layer of PCC.
 Foundation and Substructure
• The foundations for the BWSL project consist of 2000-mm diameter
piles numbering 120 for the cable-stayed bridges and 1500-mm
diameter piles numbering 484 for the approach bridges.
• The strength of these rocks range from extremely weak to extremely
strong and their conditions range from highly weathered and fractured,
to fresh, massive and intact. The weathered rock beds are further
overlain by transported soil, calcareous sandstone and thin bed of
coarse grained conglomerate.
• The top of these strata are overlain by marine soil layer up to 9m thick
consisting of dark brown clayey silt with some fine.
 Load test on pile
• For conducting the load test on the piles, the load to be applied varied
from 4,500 tonne to 9,600 tonne. Arranging reactions for such loads
either by normal kentledge method massive scale arrangements in the
sea waters. This was completely avoided by careful planning of load test
using the Stenberg load cell method.
• The award winning Osterberg Cell, or ´O-Cell´, was a hydraulically driven,
high capacity, sacrificial loading device installed within the foundation
unit. Working in two directions, upward against side-shear and
downward against end-bearing.
• Load testing with the O-Cell continues until one of three things occurs:
ultimate skin friction capacity was reached, ultimate end bearing
capacity was reached, or the maximum O-Cell capacity was reached.
Osterberg Cell
 Superstructure

• The average weight of the span is 1800 tons, whereas the heaviest
span in the bridge (to be erected with the Launching Gantry) weighs
2000 tons.
• A Typical 50m span of the approach bridges comprises 15 field
segments, a Pier segment and 200mm (nominal) insitu wet joints.
• During the span construction, all field segments are suspended from
the Gantry, glued and temporarily stressed together. Once the gluing
operation is completed, span alignment to the Piers is followed.
Construction of spans between piers
Construction of spans in cable stay
 Construction of Pylon Tower Legs
The salient characteristics of the pylon tower that make it complex and
challenging from the point of view of constructability are as follows:
• The section decreases gradually with height
• The tower legs are inclined in two directions, which creates
complexities in alignment and climbing of soldiers
• Construction joints permitted only at 3m level. Inserts were permitted
only in horizontal grooves provided at 3m height
 Partners involved
• VSL Singapore Pvt Ltd: Technical Consultants
• Ultra Tech: Cement
• Rj watson group(USA): Bearings
• Tata Steel, SAIL: Steel
• ELKEM International Ltd, Norway: Norway: Micro Silica
• SPCC: China-Stay Cable
• DOKA Australia: Pylons formwork
THANK YOU