Rajiv Gandhi Sealink—Mumbai, India

Max Meyer, VSL Technical Centre Manager - Asia/Australia, Singapore; Devendra Sharma, Project Chief Engineer; Hindustan
Construction Company, Mumbai, India; Dinesh Paradkar, Design Executive, Hindustan Construction Company, Mumbai, India.
Contact: max.meyer@vsl.com
DOI: 10.2749/101686611X12910257102677

Abstract by bound enabling the completion of as inverted Y and transversely as a

the southbound carriageway ahead of diamond (Fig. 2).
Rajiv Gandhi Sealink in Mumbai, the northbound carriageway to gener-
India, is an eight-lane, 4,7 km long off- ate early revenue from tolls. Hence, This sealink represents an intelligent
shore road bridge, West of the Mumbai after construction had already started, bridge with state-of-the-art systems
Peninsula, which provides an alterna- major design changes had to be car- for traffic monitoring, instrumentation
tive connection across the Mahim Bay ried out: design of the second navi- and emergency support. It features a
between the districts of Bandra in the gation span as a cable-stayed bridge modern toll plaza at Bandra with 16
North and Worli in the South. To cre- called the Worli cable-stayed bridge, lanes equipped with automated toll
ate a landmark structure, a symmetri- and redesign of the Bandra cable- collection systems.
cal cable stayed bridge with a single stayed bridge. The original twin-deck
pylon was chosen to bridge the two 250 structure of the Bandra cable-stayed Design Aspects
m wide navigation spans. bridge was replaced by independent
This project forms first phase of the stayed bridges for each bound, whose The link is made up of two indepen-
Western Freeway sealink project in single pylons are made up of four dent twin bridges with four traffic lanes
Mumbai, which will be, once com- slender legs arranged longitudinally each. The bridge deck is composed of
pleted, an offshore bypass all the
way down to Nariman Point at the
Southern tip of the Mumbai penin-
sula. The southbound carriageway was
opened to traffic in July 2009, followed
by the northbound carriageway in
March 2010.
This paper focuses on the design and
construction aspects of the offshore
bridge, whose deck is almost entirely
made up of pre-cast box-girder seg-
ments. The construction faced many
challenges mainly due to late design
changes and the annual monsoon sea-
sons. Because of rough sea conditions Fig. 1: Bandra cable-stayed land mark bridge
prevailing at this location, construction
over water had to be stopped every
year during the four-and-half-month
long monsoon season.
Keywords: Rajiv Gandhi Sealink; pre-
cast segmental viaduct; match cast
technology; span-by-span construction;
overhead gantry; cable stayed bridge;
lifting frame with strand lifting units.

Introduction
This project was awarded to the main
contractor in 2000. Due to the local
fishing community’s demands, the
owner had to add, after award of work
and start of construction, a second 150
m wide navigation span to the origi-
nal design and had to shift the bridge
alignment 150 m into the sea near
the Worli connector. In addition, the
owner decided to get the Bandra cable
stayed landmark bridge (Fig. 1) rede-
signed, so that it could be built bound Fig. 2: The 126-m tall pylons of the two Bandra cable-stayed bridges

94 Technical Report Structural Engineering International 1/2011

pre-cast concrete segments. A typical
segment is 18,1 m respectively, if sus-
pended from stays, 22,7 m wide, 3,0 m
deep and about 3 m long (Fig. 3). It has
three cells and a curved “fish belly”
underside and weighs between 80
and 140 t. For durability, high-perfor-
mance concrete with a cube strength
of 60 MPa, with microsilica and flyash,
was used. Deck slab is transversely
pre-stressed.
The Rajiv Gandhi Sealink consists of
viaduct modules (north approach, link
viaduct between cable-stayed bridges,
south approach) that are continuous
over 4 to 6 spans, have typical spans
of 50 m, sit on disc and pot bearings,
and cable-stayed bridges. The cable
stayed bridges are the Bandra cable
stayed and the Worli cable stayed twin
bridges. In addition, there is a 4-lane
link bridge at the southern end provid-
ing connection to the mainland. This
link bridge is composed of pre-cast
beams of 24 m spans and segmental
bridge decks of 30 m spans. Figure 4
shows the general bridge arrangement.
Foundations and piers: All foundations
are made up of bore piles, cast in situ
pile caps and pier shafts. Diameters
of bore piles are 1,5 m for viaduct
modules and 2,0 m for the cable-stayed
bridges and the link bridge.
CAD-O
3m
Fig. 3: Typical cross-section of twin bridges for the cable-stayed portion
North approach viaduct
Bandra
A1
Ba
nd
ra
A
54 ach za
pp oll p
&
6 m ro
ro la
t
ad
A1
N
or
th
80
ap
0 m ch v
pr
oa
ia
Fig. 4: General bridge arrangement
Structural Engineering International 1/2011
The viaducts were designed to be built
span by span with construction joints
at the front face of the leading pier
segment. Longitudinal pre-stressing
(PT) is internal and consists of para-
bolic cables located in the inner ver-
tical webs and overlapped over pier
segments, bottom cables running in the
bottom slab and top capping tendons
placed in the deck slab.
Each of the two Bandra cable-stayed
bridges has two 250 m long main spans
suspended from a pylon made up of
four solid legs and two end spans called
transition spans, each 50 m at either
end. Each bridge has two inclined
planes of stays in a semi-fan arrange-
ment anchored to the edges of the deck
at 6 m spacing. Top anchorages of stays
are located inside a stressing chamber
in the upper vertical part of pylon.
Each of the two Worli cable-stayed
bridges has a 150 m cable supported
main span flanked by two 50 m con-
ventional approach spans at either end.
Two pylons support the deck by means
of four vertical planes of stay cables
in a semi-fan arrangement. The cable
spacing is 6,0 m along the bridge deck.
The pylon consists of a pair of solid
legs. These legs are outwardly inclined
below the deck, tied together through
the deck, inwardly inclined above the
22,7 m 22,7 m
15 m 15 m
of SB
CAD-O CAD-O
600 m
Bandra cable stayed bridge link viaduct
500 m Worli cable stayed
16 × 50 = 800 m Precast segmental 4 × 50 = 200 m
Precast segmental (balanced cantilever)
(span-by-span)
(span-by-span) P19 Precast segmental
(forward cantilever)
P6 P12 P17 P21 P25
Bandra worli sea link—elevation
P17 P21 P25
P19
du
ct
600 m 200 m
Bandra cable stayed bridge
Bandra worli sea link viaduct—plan alignment
deck and connected near the top end
by a cross beam. The stays are over-
lapped through solid pylon legs (Fig. 5).
For all cable-stayed bridges, deck
is monolitically tied into the pylon.
Parallel wire cables are used as stays.
As typical for other pre-cast segmen-
tal bridges, the technical challenge for
this project was not so much with the
basic analysis of the structure, but more
so with selection of structural details,
which allowed the advantages of pre-
cast production to be fully exploited
both with regard to quality of the final
product and with regard to ease of con-
struction. For these projects, consider-
able efforts were made to fine-tune
the deck segmentation and the deck’s
cross section. The initial idea was to
have only one wet joint per span. This
concept was changed in favour of an
arrangment with two wet joints per span
between the field segments and the two
pier segments. This change resulted
in several advantages. There was no
need to match-cast pier and expansion
joint (EJ) segments, which due to their
complexities needed to be produced
in special casting moulds, against field
segments. This completely decoupled
the respective acitivites and greatly
simplified the production of pier and
EJ segments. Geometry control during
erection was made easier, as geometri-
cal inaccuracies could be absorbed at
both ends of span being erected, even
though the erection gantry’s front sup-
port was standing on top of the leading
of SB pier segment. The length of field seg-
ments was orignially only 2,5 and 2,0
CAD-O
m, which would have required blisters
for bottom PT to straddle over two seg-
3m
ments in order to achieve minimum
straight length and minimum radius of
curvature for the PT tendons behind
350 m
South approach viaduct
bridge 28 × 50 = 1400 m
150 m
Precast segmental (span-by-span)
Worli
P32 P39 P45 P50 P55 P60
R29
Worli
Link bridge
811 m
R12
R1 R4
P60
P32
350 m 1400 m
Worli cable stayed bridge South approach viaduct
Technical Report 95

Fig. 5: Worli cable-stayed bridges
their anchorages. Such a situation was
not desirable, specifically as the deck
had a tight curvature in plan. The con-
sultant approved the contractor’s pro-
posal to replace the sixteen 2,5 m and
four 2,0 m long field segments of typical
internal span with fifteen 3,175 m long
segments allowing the confinement
of all PT blisters within the segment
length. This change further reduced the
number of field segments by 25%.
Thickening of the internal vertical
webs in the triple-cell box girder was
orignially defined symmetrically on the
inner and outer faces. As external cells
were already rather small and housed
lifting holes and blisters for temporary
PT, the cross section was changed by
varying the web thickness on the inner
side only. Hence geometry of exter-
nal cells became typical for all field
segments, which cut down the casting
mould modifications. Fewer modifica-
tions of casting moulds not only meant
higher productivity but, more impor-
tantly, also resulted in better quality of
segments.
Construction
For the foundation work, five jack-up
barges were used. After construction
of piles, steel cofferdams, pre-assem-
bled on land, were placed to allow in
situ construction of the pile cap and
pier shaft. For construction of founda-
tion in the intertidal zone just south of
the Worli cable-stayed bridge, a tem-
porary bridge had to be built.
For production of the pre-cast deck
segments, the main contractor estab-
lished a casting yard near the north-
ern abutment of the project. Segments
were produced using the match cast
short line technology. The minimum
radius in plan was as small as 245 m and
crossfall went up to 6%. To produce
the 2342 segments, the main contractor
installed four field-casting moulds and
one special pier/EJ casting mould for
96 Technical Report
the viaduct segments and four dedi-
cated casting moulds for the main span
segments. To maximise available space,
casting moulds were located beside the
two storage bays. The casting moulds’s
transfer carts were used to move seg-
ments from casting moulds to storage
bays.
A special feature of the casting moulds
on this project was use of dedicated
bulkheads for different cross sections.
One of the critical areas, when produc-
ing pre-cast segments by match cast
technology, is the joints. Cells need to
be properly detailed, such that when
seperating a conjugate segment from a
new segment by rotation of the conju-
gate segment, no shear keys are dam-
aged. Therefore, apart from checking
properly the kinematics for this opera-
tion to ensure that such rotations are
possible without obstructions within
keys, it is important that the buklhead’s
skin is basically free from any steps
that may prevent segment separation
along the theoretical joint face. The
15 field segments of a typical internal
span had three different cross sections
due to variation of thickness of inter-
nal vertical webs. Hence, when produc-
ing the 15 field segments of a span in a
casting mould, the bulkhead had to be
modified four times. Instead of adding
on panels to make up the web varia-
tions, dedicated bulkheads were fabri-
cated that could be quickly swapped
whenever cross section needed to be
changed. With this innovation, not only
the cycle time was reduced but, more
importantly, the bulkhead was per-
fectly smooth and free of steps for any
type of cross section.
The viaduct decks, whose typical 50 m
span weigh 1800 t, were erected span by
span, with two overhead gantries oper-
ating from north to south. Performance
specifications called for a gantry that
needed to be supported centrically
over piers during span erection, which
could not load the newly erected deck
Structural Engineering International 1/2011
on field segments with more than 400
t during launching and had to allow
for delivery of segments from below
(delivery by barge) or from behind
over the already erected part of via-
duct (by trailers). Furthermore, options
had to be provided to relocate the
pier bracket either by barge crane or
by the gantry itself. This requirement,
together with the fish belly shaped
outer segment geometry, excluded the
use of an underslung gantry. Hence,
an overhead gantry with a single main
truss (MT) was selected. With segments
delivered from behind, the field seg-
ments of a span had to be suspended
in two levels to allow the feeding-in of
the last segments (Fig. 6).
The working principles of these gan-
tries are illustrated in Fig. 7. The gan-
try’s MT was supported during the
span erection on the front pylon (FP)
and rear pylon (RP), which stand on
top of the pier segments (step A). After
having completed span between pier N
and pier N + 1, the pier segment or the
pair of EJ segments for pier N + 2 were
parked on completed span (step B).
The MT was then launched in step C
by half-span length forward, until the
front support leg (FSL) could be acti-
vated on the bracket attached to the
front of pier N + 2. The pair of EJ seg-
ments (or the pier segment) parked on
the completed span was then placed on
pier N + 2. FPs and RPs were subse-
quently relocated in several steps, until
they were standing on the pair of EJ
segments (or the pier segment) on pier
N + 2 respectively on the pier segment
on pier N + 1 utilizing FSL, rear support
leg (RSL) and centre leg (CL) (steps C
to F). The last step was to launch MT by
another half span length forward, until
it was symmetrically standing over the
next span to be erected.
A remarkable operation was required
to relocate the two overhead gantries,
which weighed 1200 t each, around
the Bandra cable stay bridges, with a
1600 t capacity floating sheerleg crane
from Singapore, one of the biggest of
its kind in the world (Fig. 8). The main
challenges for this operation were
the shallow waters and the rough sea
conditions.
To accelerate the construction, the
main contractor commissioned a third
gantry specifically for erection of the
12 pre-cast segmental spans of the
link bridge. For that purpose, an exist-
ing gantry, which had previously been
used for construction of Humin Road
Viaduct in Shanghai, was bought and
recommissioned.
 Construction of Bandra cable-stayed
bridges: After construction of the
lower pylon legs below deck level with
conventional formwork, an exten-
sive falsework system standing on the
pylon’s pile cap was erected to support
the pre-cast segments making up the
69 m long pier table. Interface between
the deck and the pylon is formed by
massive in situ cast crossbeams. Upon
completion of the pier table, the upper
part of the pylon was built with four
sets of self-climbing formwork. Due to
their slenderness, the four legs form-
ing a pylon had to be stabilized during
construction by an elaborate tempo-
rary strutting system made of large-
diameter steel pipes.
A temporary bridge was built con-
necting the already completed viaduct
north of the main span with the pylon’s
pile cap to allow delivery of reinforce-
ment and concrete for construction
of pylons even during the monsoon
Fig. 6: Details of span-by-span erection of viaducts with segments delivered over season.
completed part of viaduct on trailers
Transition spans were erected with the
MI overhead gantries, whereas the stay
suspended part of the main spans was
built by cantilevering with segment lift-
FSL CL RP FP FSL
ing frames (Fig. 9). These frames were
equipped with strand lifting units to
(a)
lift barge-delivered segments up to the
final position. A buffer element was
developed that was made up of 2-m
long slings installed between the lifting
beam and the segment. This device was
very effective to lift segments off the
(b) barges in choppy waters without dam-
aging the lifting frame or segments.
Construction of Worli cable-stayed
bridges: After the construction of
pylons with the self-climbing form-
work, side spans were erected with
(c) the two overhead gantries. To launch
PIER N PIER N + 1 PIER N + 2

MT these gantries over the Worli cable-

stayed bridge’s main span of 150 m,
two temporary piers per carriageway
FSL CL
RP
FP FSL were built. The main span decks were
subsequently erected with similar lift-
(d) ing frames as used for Bandra cable-
stayed bridges.
A special challenge faced when casting
the upper pylon legs for all the cable-
stayed bridges was the requirement for
very fine architectural surface grooves.
(e)
The need for heavy equipment nor-
mally associated with installation of
parallel wire stay cables was greatly
reduced by utilizing movable wheel-
based decoilers and strand pulling
technologies rather than pulling rods
(f) PIER N PIER N + 1 PIER N + 2
for drawing cables through the pylon’s
Fig. 7: Gantry kinematics and deck’s guide pipes (Fig. 10).

Structural Engineering International 1/2011 Technical Report 97

 Conclusion
Construction of the Rajiv Gandhi
Sealink faced great technical and logis-
tical challenges, mainly due to major
design changes made after the award of
contract and start of construction and
as well as the adverse sea conditions,
which prevented the main contractor
from carrying out any work over water
for one-third of a calendar year. The
use of pre-assembled steel cofferdams
for construction of pile caps and pier
shafts, resegmention of viaducts, com-
missioning of quality match cast short
line cells with dedicated bulkheads for
production of deck segments, use of
overhead gantries that were completely
self-launching and could receive either
segments delivered from sea or from
behind, good climbform systems for
pylon leg construction, use of strand
lifting technology for installation of the
Fig. 8: Relocation of overhead gantry around Bandra cable-stayed bridges with a 1600-t parallel wire stays and detailed con-
capacity floating shear leg crane
struction stage analysis and geometry
control during tower leg and deck can-
tilever erection of cable-stayed bridge’s
main spans helped greatly to overcome
the technical challenges in the con-
struction of this very visible new land-
mark structure in Mumbai.

SEI
EI Data Block

Owner:
Maharashtra State Road Development
Corporation
Consultant:
Overall concept (alignment,
cross section): Jacobs Engineering
Group—Svedrup Asia Ltd (India)
Bandra cable stayed bridge:
Original design (single bridge with
single pylon): Jacobs Engineering
Group—Svedrup Asia Ltd (India)
in association with HNTB, USA
Redesign (twin bridges): Dar
Al-Handasah, London, UK
Fig. 9: Details of deck erection for Bandra cable-stayed bridges with lifting frames Worli cable stay bridge: Dar Al-
Handasah, London, UK
Main contractor:
Hindustan Construction Company
(HCC)
Specialist contractor for prestressing
and erection of stay cable bridge decks:
VSL India
Construction engineering:
VSL Technical Centre Asia/Australia,
Singapore; P. Klein and A. Faessler,
Switzerland
Bridge deck area: 143 700 m2
Estimated Cost
(USD million): 300
Service Date: July 2009/ March 2010
Fig. 10: Installation of parallel wire cables—use of strands and movable decoilers

98 Technical Report Structural Engineering International 1/2011