Structural Engineering International

ISSN: 1016-8664 (Print) 1683-0350 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tsei20

Wide Cable-supported Bridges for Rail-cum-road

Traffic

Yingliang Wang & Reiner Saul

To cite this article: Yingliang Wang & Reiner Saul (2020): Wide Cable-supported Bridges for Rail-
cum-road Traffic, Structural Engineering International

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10168664.2020.1735980

Published online: 04 May 2020.

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Wide Cable-supported Bridges for Rail-cum-road Traffic
Yingliang Wang, Dr, Deputy Chief Engineer, China Railway ERYUAN Engineering Group Co. Ltd, Chengdu, People’s Republic of
China; Reiner Saul, Dipl.- Ing. Dr- Ing E.h., Senior Consultant, Former Managing Director of Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner, Stuttgart,
Germany. Contact: yingliangwangcd@aliyun.com.
DOI: 10.1080/10168664.2020.1735980

Abstract Compared with the two-level arrange-

ment, the authors find that the one-
This paper reviews and describes experiences and the state-of-art of cable- level arrangement has the following
supported rail-cum-road bridges with box girder. The application range of wide advantages:
single box girder, vented box girders with two and three separated boxes is
analyzed from the point of view of structural behavior, fabrication,
transportation, installation depending upon the number of tracks, road lanes (1) The top elevation of the road is
and different transversal locations of the pylon legs. Future trends of these reduced by about 10–15 m, so the
bridges for multiple railway tracks and road lanes are discussed. A cable- total length of the corresponding
stayed bridge with a main span of 520 m and three-separated-box-girder with approach bridges is remarkably
different arrangements of the cable planes has been analyzed in a little more reduced. Another disadvantage
detail. The results reveal that the three-separated-box-girder is an effective of the two-level superstructure is
solution for long span cable-supported bridges with multiple railway tracks and that it is necessary to arrange a
road lanes. transition zone where the traffic
on either the upper level or the
Keywords: Cable-supported bridges; rail-cum-road bridges; truss girder; single
lower level is shifted transversely
box girder; separated-box-girder
to separate the alignments and
allow the traffic on both levels to
Introduction —of course- as a minimum be able reach the ground.2
to span between these points. (2) In general, the steel quantity of a
Cable-stayed bridges are very suitable Action 3: distribute concentrated box girder is smaller than that of
for long span rail-cum-road bridges loads. The deck’s ability to distribute a truss girder. The main girder of
with heavy train load. According to concentrated train loads is utilized in cable-stayed bridges with multi-
the relative location of the railway order to distribute these loads over cable system has to resist big
tracks and the road lanes, the bridges several stay cables. axial forces and small bending
can be divided into two-level and moments. The advantage of a
single-level structures. The two-level steel truss girder, instead, is its
The limitation of the maximum slope,
bridges generally use truss girders, in higher depth and its higher
deflection and rotation is stricter for
which the railway is located on the capacity to resist big moments.
bridges carrying railways than road
bottom level and the road on the top The box girder is composed by stif-
lanes only. In particular, the differen-
level. Very exceptionally, the railway fened plates, whose capacity to
tial angular rotations under traffic
is on the top level and the road on the resist axial forces is much bigger
loads at the expansion joints between
bottom level due to different slopes of than that of a steel truss girder.
adjacent girders need special attention.
the road and the railway, especially if (3) The steel box girder is easy for
Furthermore, the loads in the longi-
the elevation is controlled by the site maintenance, and the maintenance
tudinal direction of the bridge due to
topography or the adjacent elevation cost is, hence, much lower than
braking and accelerating trains are
of railway stations and yards. The that of a steel truss girder.
significant.
single-level bridges often uses box Chinese bridge engineers have
girders with various cable planes. The global vertical stiffness of CSBs learned lessons from double deck
with multi-cable system is mainly rail-cum-road bridges with steel
The action of the main girder of cable-
determined by the total load and the truss girder as the retrofitting of
stayed bridges (CSBs) with multi-cable
general arrangement. The contribution the upper level for the carriage-
system can be divided into1:
of the stiffness of the main girder is ways may not interrupt the oper-
small, especially for main spans larger ation of the railway on the
Action 1: absorb the normal forces ori- than 300 m. The traditional limitation bottom level, so the construction
ginated by the inclined cables. of the vertical deformation is replaced time had to be very short and
Action 2: carry the load locally by the maximum gradient slope under a shield had to be added along
between the cable anchor points. the traffic load. The end rotation the clearance of the railway. The
The contribution of the main girder angle of the main girder at the expan- retrofitting cost was, hence, very
in the transfer of vertical loads sion joint can be limited by piers in high.3
depends on the overall structural the side spans or by smaller cable (4) The depth of a box girder is lower
system. In principle, as the deck is spacing near the expansion joint. The than that of steel truss girder, so
subjected directly to the traffic load multi-cable system and piers in the the bridge looks very slim and
and its own weight, but only sup- side spans make cable-stayed bridges elegant.
ported by the cable system at the with box girders feasible for heavy (5) The width of a box girder is larger
cable anchor points, the deck must live loads and high speed railways. than that of a truss with the same

Structural Engineering International 2020 Scientific Paper 1

(a)
(b)
Fig. 1: Overall layout of a multi-cable bridge with different girders (a) box girder (b) truss
girder (Units: m)
number of tracks and road lanes,
so its transversal stiffness is much
bigger. This enhances the lateral
stability of high speed trains and
the comfort for passengers
significantly.
(6) The cable spacing of a box girder is
easier to reduce at the side spans
than that of a truss girder as the
panel length of steel trusses is diffi-
cult to change, so the total length
of and the total cost of the box
girder option is often shorter and
lower than that of truss girder
(Fig. 1).
The disadvantages of one-level rail-
cum-road Cable-stayed bridges are
listed in the following:
(1) If the railway tracks are located in
the middle and the road lanes are
located at the both sides, the land
acquisition is more than that of
two-level rail-cum-road Cable-
stayed bridges with truss girder.
(2) If side-span piers cannot be
adopted, the global stiffness is a
little bit weaker than that of two-
level arrangement with truss
girder.
(3) Sometimes, the approach bridge
will also play more important role
than that of the main bridge. If
the spans of the approach bridge
are larger than 120 m, the two-
level arrangement with truss
girder is more suitable for the
approach bridge. If the total
length of the main bridge is
shorter, the approach bridge will
2 Scientific Paper
dominate the total bridge, so the
two-level arrangement with truss
girder is more suitable.
The first CSBs with box girders for
road and full railway traffic are the
two Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridges in
Argentina which were opened to
traffic in 1978.4 The railway and the
road are on the same level (Fig. 2).
These two identical bridges with main
spans of 330 m carry four lanes of
roadway traffic and a single railway
track across two branches of the
Paraná River. Another rather early
example is the Kap Shui Mun Brige
in Hongkong, China, a double deck
bridge with 2 lanes for suburban
trains and emergency lanes on the
lower deck and 2 × 3 lanes on the
upper deck.5
With the rapid development of the
infrastructure, bridges with multi-
Fig. 2: Cross- sections of the Zárate-Brazo Largo Bridges across the Paraná/ Argentina4 (a)
standard section (b) section with cable anchorage (Units: mm)
Structural Engineering International
track and multi–lane are needed, so
the bridges become wider and wider.
The cross section of box girders may
use a single box or two coherent
boxes or vented (slotted) girders with
two or three boxes, and associated
anchorages of the stay-cables to the
box girders.
The cross section of the box girders is
mainly controlled by following factors:
(1) the capacity of the fabrication yard
(2) the transportation condition from
the fabrication yard to the con-
struction site
(3) the transportation condition at the
construction site, including the
main span and side spans.
(4) the transversal location of the
main girder and the pylon leg
which may be located outside or
inside the box girder.
Three box girder types may be used:
(1) a single-cell box girder or two
coherent cells
(2) two-separated-box-girder
(3) three-separated-box-girder
Single Box Girders or Two
Adjacent Boxes
In general, if the total width of the
girder is less than 40 m and the con-
dition of fabrication and transportation
is good, a single box girder with multi-
cell is convenient.
The longest span bridge with a single
streamlined box girder and multi-
cells is the Third Bosporus Bridge in
Istanbul, Turkey, opened to traffic in
2016.6 It is a high rigidity suspension
bridge reinforced by stay-cables with
a span of 1408 m. It carries two
2020

Fig. 3: Cross- sections of the Third Bosporus Bridge (a) main span (b) side spans (Units: m)
(courtesy of T Engineering)
Fig. 4: Cross section of the Lingang Yangtze River Bridge in Ybing/China (Units: mm)
tracks of heavy railway and eight
lanes, resulting in a total width of
58.5 m (Fig. 3).
Another typical example is the Lingang
Yangtze River Bridge in Yibing, China.
It is a cable-stayed bridge with two
pylons and spans of 72.5 + 203 + 522 +
203 + 72.5 m. The main girder
accommodates 4 tracks of high speed
Bridge
Mannheim- Ludwigshafen Bridge
South bridge
Sava bridge, Belgrade
3th Bosporus Bridge
Dongping Channel Bridge
4th Tuo River Bridge
Lingang Yangtze River Bridge
Table 1: Cable- stayed rail-cum-road bridges with a single or two coherent box girders
Structural Engineering International
If the width of a bridge deck is larger
than 40 m, it is very difficult to fabri-
cate and transport the entire section.
If the box girders cannot be trans-
ported to the side spans by ship they
were often constructed on trestles or
by incremental launching.
If a concrete box girder is used for the
side spans with a width larger than
45.0 m, the construction is very diffi-
cult. The typical example is the Third
Bosporus Bridge, whose PC box
girder of the side spans were cast in
situ on trestles. The construction is
even more difficult if the box girder is
wider than 45 m or/and the false work
is higher than 30 m.
If the bridge deck of the side span is
designed as a single steel box girder
as that of the main span and the trans-
portation condition of the side spans is
very difficult, the incremental launch-
ing method may be used as for the
Lingang Yangtze River Bridge,
Yibing, China.
Another important factor which influ-
ences the cross section of the bridge
deck is the transverse location of the
pylon legs. Basically there are two
possibilities:
(1) The pylon legs are located outside
the box girder (Fig. 5).
When the pylon legs are located
outside the single box girder, the total
width of the main girder is reduced
no matter whether the anchorage of
the cables is located inside or outside
railway and 8 road lanes, resulting in a
the box girder. The connection
total width of 63.9 m (Fig. 4). The
between the pylon legs and the main
width of the box girder is the world
girder can be fixed, free or by
record for a rail-cum-road bridge with
dampers in the longitudinal direction,
a single box.
which can be used for any kind of
Some more bridges with single box cable-stayed bridge, such as single
girders or two coherent box girders pylon, double pylon or multi pylon.
wider than 40 m have been built world- But if the main span is small and,
wide (Table 1). hence, the height of the pylon above
Completed year Country Main span (m) Width of girder (m) Tracks Lanes
1972 Germany 287 36.9–51.9 2 4–8
1991 Ukraine 271 41.5 2 6
2012 Serbia 376 45.0 2 8
2016 Turkey 1408 58.5 2 8
2018 China 260 46.5 2 6
2018 China 200 49.0 2 6
2021 China 522 63.8 4 6
2020 Scientific Paper 3
 Bridge in Belgrade.7 Sometimes the
pylon leg and the main girder are con-
nected monolithically and directly sup-
ported on the pier by bearings, as at the
Oberkasseler Bridge in Düsseldorf/
Germany8 and the South bridge in
Kyiv/Ukraine.9 These bridges look
very slim and elegant because the
pylon leg runs through the wide box
girder.
If the pylon leg is located inside the box
girder, three options may be used:
(1) Slot in the box girder, the pylon is
supported on or fixed to the pier
(2) The pylon leg and the box girder
are connected monolithically and
supported on the pier by bearings
(3) Separated-box-girder with two or
three boxes

Fig. 5: Pylon legs outside the box girder
(Units: m)
the deck is small, it looks stumpy and
less elegant.
(1) The pylon legs are located inside
the box girder (Fig. 6).
If the pylon legs are located inside the
box girder, the additional width of the
girder required for them will also be
used for the cable anchorage. This sol-
ution is very suitable for single pylon
cable-stayed bridges if the pylon leg,
the main girder and the pier are con-
nected monolithically as at the Ada
Separated-box-girder
General
If the width of the single box girder
would be wider than about 40 m, it
becomes more difficult for fabrication
and transportation than separated-
box-girder. If the main span of the
bridge is larger than 1600 m and the
wind speed is higher, the separated-
box-girder may also be used to
enhance the critical wind speed of
flutter. Cable-stayed bridges (CSB) as
well as suspension bridges (SB) may
have bridge decks with separated-
box-girder (Table 2).
Option (1) is very rare in the practical
design due to the poor structural behav-
ior of the main girder; option (2) is often
used for single pylon cable-stayed
bridges, medium spans with two
pylons and multi-pylon cable-stayed
bridges and option (3) is suitable for
any kind of cable-stayed bridge. The
separated-box-girder is connected by
cross beams. The spacing of the cross
beam is basically determined by the
cable spacing at the girder.
Compared with the single box girder,
the separated-box-girder solution has
the following advantages:
(1) The smaller box girders can be
easier fabricated, transported and
installed individually and con-
nected by cross beams at the con-
struction site.
(2) The pylon leg runs through the gap
between the separate girders, so
the bridge looks very slim and
elegant.
(3) The three-separated-box-girder
solution is very suitable for multi-
track railway and multi-lane road.
(4) The critical flutter wind speed of
separated-box-girder is often
much higher than that of single
box girder, so it is more suitable
for very long span cable-supported
bridges.

One major weakness of separated-box-

girder is their sensitiveness to vortex
Fig. 6: Pylon legs inside the box girder of the South Bridge in Kyiv9 (Units: m) (courtesy of induced vibrations, so the distance
Dr. Korniiev) between the box girders should be

Completed Bridge Main span Girder width Carriage Nos of Nos of

Bridge year type (m) (m) Tracks lanes boxes pylons
Kai-Shui Mun 1997 CSB 430 35.5 2 6+2 2 2
Bridge
New Champlain 2019 CSB 240 59.7 2 10 3 1
Bridge
Danjiang Bridge 2022 CSB 450 45–69 2 6 2 1
Messina Bridge Unknown SB 3300 61.5 2 4 3 2
Table 2: Cable-supported rail-cum-road bridges with separated-box-girder

4 Scientific Paper Structural Engineering International 2020

determined with consideration of this
vibration, or other devices should be
used to mitigate the regular vortex-
shedding.
Two-separated-box-girder
If the girder is not too wide, two-separ-
ated-box-girder connected by cross
beams is an ideal cross section. The
transverse location of the tracks and
lanes are also influenced by the
number of pylon legs and their relative
location (Fig. 7).
(a) One central pylon is between the
box girders, and the railway
tracks and lanes of each direction
are located outside the pylon
(b) Two pylon legs are located outside
of the box girders, tracks and lanes
are located between the pylon legs
(c) Two pylon legs run between the
box girders, the railway tracks
are located between the pylon
legs and the lanes are located
outside.
In solution (a) and (c), the two side
boxes are connected by cross beams
only.
A typical example of solution (a) is the
Danjiang Bridge in Taiwan, a single
pylon cable-stayed bridge with a main
span of 450 m. The railway on this
bridge is a light railway, so the align-
ments of tracks and lanes are curved
on the main bridge and the length of
each cross beam is variable. The steel
quantity of the main girder is reduced
and the appearance for drivers and
passengers is playful and interesting,
(a)
(c)
Fig. 7: Cross-sections with two separate box- girders (a) central pylon between the boxes (b)
pylon legs located outside the bridge deck (c) two pylon legs in between the box girders
(Units: m)
Structural Engineering International
but the curve in the plan is, of course,
not suitable for high speed trains.
A typical example of solution (b) is the
Ruyi Sea Crossing Bridge, China.
An early example for pylons of solution
(c) is the Mannheim-Ludwigshafen
Bridge across the Rhine river, opened
to traffic in 1972.10 It is a single pylon
cable-stayed bridge with spans of
287.4 + 60.16 + 65 m and a cantilever of
21.25 m. It carries two lanes of light
railway traffic and four to six road
lanes. It was worldwide the first mayor
bridge with a main span from steel
and side spans from pre-stressed con-
crete. This kind of cross-section has
not been used in a very wide bridge
yet, but the authors believe that it is a
good solution for appropriate construc-
tion conditions, especially for doublet
tracks railway and multi lanes road
traffic. Another advantage of this kind
of cross section is the central trough
and railway tracks can be added in the
second stage easily.
Three-separated-box-girder
Three-separated-box-girder is an effec-
tive solution for a major number of
tracks and lanes, especially for super-
long span cable-supported bridges.
The railway and the road are located
on the middle box girder and the side
box girders, respectively. Compared
with the two-separated-box-girder
option, three-separated-box-girder
has the following advantages:
(1) The road and railway are located
on separate box girders, the road
(b)
2020
and the railway can use a steel-con-
crete composite deck or a steel
orthotropic deck, respectively. For
the road deck, the concrete slab
deck is cheaper than a steel ortho-
tropic deck and the pavement on
the concrete deck is more durable
than on a steel orthotropic deck.
The steel orthotropic deck is not
very sensitive to the train load due
to the distribution of sleepers and
the ballast. So the economy and
durability are enhanced greatly.
(2) If the transportation condition of
the yard or/and the site is not suit-
able for one big segment, the
three-separated-box-girder can be
divided for fabrication, transpor-
tation, installation and are then con-
nected by cross beams. They can
also be fabricated, transported and
installed by one big segment when
the site condition is very favorable.
(3) The railway and the road are separ-
ated physically by the gap and the
cross beams. The boundary of
inspection, maintenance work and
cost between the owner of the
railway and the road is clearer
than for other cross sections, such
as truss, single box girder and two-
separated-box-girder.
(4) Due to the two gaps between the
three box girders, the freedom of
pylon design is big and very suit-
able for two pylon legs running
between the box girders and for
four pylon legs, with two legs
running between the box girders
and two other legs located outside
the box. The transversal behavior
of the pylon is ensured by reason-
able structural forms. These
bridges look slim and elegant
even for small or medium spans.
(5) The option with three-separated-
box-girder is wider than two-sep-
arated-box-girder with the same
number of tracks and road lanes,
so its transversal stiffness is bigger.
So far only one CSB has used the
three-separated-box-girder solution:
the New Champlain Bridge in Mon-
treal/Canada,11 a single pylon cable-
stayed bridge with spans of 80.4 + 124
+ 240 + 84.4 m, which has been com-
pleted this year (Figs. 8 and 9).
The Messina Bridge12 is a rail-cum-road
suspension bridge with a main span of
3300 m, whose main girder has three-
separated-box-girder with a total width
of 61.15 m. The final design was com-
pleted several years ago, but the con-
struction has not started yet.
Scientific Paper 5
(a)
(b)
Fig. 8: Cross- sections of the New Champlain Bridge in Montreal/Canada (a) without cable
anchorage and steel crossbeam (b) with cable anchorage and steel crossbeam (Units: m)
Fig. 9: Main girder of the New Champlain
Bridge (courtesy of SSLC)
Case Study of a Cable-stayed
Bridge with 4 Tracks of High
Speed Railway and a Dual 3
Lanes Carriageway
General Layout and Cross- Section
of the Bridge Deck
A CSB with spans of 70.5 + 203 + 520 +
203 + 70.5 m was studied (Fig.10).
The bridge accommodates, besides the 4
tracks and 6 lanes, cycling and footpaths.
The total width of 63.4 m consists of
. the cycling track, footpath and 3
lanes in each direction with a width
of about 17.25 m
. the 4 tracks high speed railway with
about 24.9 m.
. the cable anchorage area on each
side with about 2.0 m,
Two options of the main girder were
studied in the preliminary design: a
single box girder as shown in Fig. 4
6 Scientific Paper
and three-separated-box-girder with a
depth of 5.0 m (Fig. 11). The central
box girder and the side box girders
are connected by cross beams with a
standard spacing of 12.0 m. The gaps
between the box girders are 6.2 m at
the top flange. The two pylons legs
run through these gaps.
Cable Plane Options and
Associated Cable Anchorages
In general, there are three different
types of cable planes and associated
anchorages on the three-separated-
box-girder, (Fig. 12).
Fig. 10: General layout of the bridge (Units: m)
Fig. 11: Cross- section of the bridge deck with cable anchorage and crossbeam (left) and
without cable anchorage and crossbeam (right) (Units: mm)
Structural Engineering International
(a) Two cable planes with twin cables
(Fig. 12a)
The cables are anchored at the cross
beams between the central girder and
the lateral girders. The cable forces are
transferred to the three box girders by
shear, bending and torsion of the cross
beams, so their section is a closed box
and more steel than for the other
options is needed. The spacing of these
cross beams is equal to that of stay
cables. The proper horizontal location
of the cable anchorages on the cross
beam depends upon the ratio of the
cross sectional areas of one side box to
half of the central box girder and can
be determined by the following approxi-
mate calculation. With the areas of each
side girder and the central girder As and
Am, respectively, the effective Young’s
moduli Es and Em, the distance
between the center of the side and
central girder L and the distance from
the cable anchorage to the outside web
of central girder a (Fig. 13) and assum-
ing that the cross beam is simply sup-
ported on the side and central girder,
the axial force in the side and central
girder may be calculated as follows
a L−a
DFs = Fch DFm = Fch (1)
L L
in which Fch is the horizontal component of
the cable force.
The ideal conditional is that the axial
strain of the side girders and the
2020
 Fig. 14: Visualization of Fig. 12b

beams are much smaller than for sol-

ution (a). The spacing of the cross
beams can be the double or the triple
of the spacing of the stay-cables. If the
spacing of the cross beams equals to
that of the stay cables, most of the
cross beams can use an open cross
section what will reduce the difficulty
of fabrication, site installation and site
connection significantly. The road
girder is in the transverse direction still
on a cantilever.
(c) Four cable planes (Fig. 12c)
Fig. 12: Alternatives of cable anchoring for a section with three-separated-box-girder (Units: mm) The two outer stay-cables are anchored
at the outer web of the side girders and
the two inner cables at the webs of the
central girder. The side girders are no
longer on a cantilever but are continu-
ously and directly supported by the
outer stay cables. So the internal
forces of the cross beams are reduced
greatly and so is the associated
steel quantity. Combined with the
diamond pylon or the invert “Y”
pylon, the torsional stiffness of four
cable planes is much bigger than that
of two cable planes or quasi-four
cable planes. Therefore the elevation
difference of adjacent rails under
eccentric traffic loads will be reduced
greatly (Table 3) and (Figs. 15 and 16).
The transverse inclination under
eccentric traffic loads and, hence, the
Fig. 13: Plan view of the cable anchorage at the cross beams difference of deformation between two
rails is for 4 cable planes reduced by
about 50% compared to the other two
central girder induced by the horizon- (b) Quasi four cable planes (Fig. 12b options, so it is very suitable for trains
tal component of the cable force are and Fig. 14) with a design speed in excess of
equal, so 200 kmph without compromising the
The outer cable is anchored at the inner safety and the comfort for the passengers.
DFs DFm web of the side girder and the inner
= (2) cable at the outer web of the central
Es × As Em (Am /2) Options for the Side Spans
girder. The cable anchorages can be sup-
ported by brackets on the webs of the If two cable planes or quasi-four cable
Substituting (1) into (2), we can get: box girders or by cross beams directly. planes are adopted, a pre-stressed con-
Cable forces are transferred to the box crete box girder is very difficult
2Es × As girders mainly by the associated web, because the road box girder is on a can-
a= L (3)
Em × Am + 2Es × As so the internal forces in the cross tilever in the transverse direction what

Structural Engineering International 2020 Scientific Paper 7

 Quasi-four cable
Items Two cable planes planes Four cable planes
Bridge width (m) 72.0 72.0 73.0
Steel quantity of cross beams (t/m) 6.25 4.1 3.0
Most unfavorable elevation difference of adjacent rails at 10.2 9.5 4.6
middle span(mm)
Structural behavior of the cross beam Simply supported Simply supported Three span
girder with cantilever girder with cantilever continuous girder
Maximum derailment coefficient* (the ratio of the lateral to 0.1537 0.1537 0.1537
the vertical force of a wheel. It should be limited as follows: Y/
P < 0.8 in which Y and P are the dynamic lateral and vertical
wheel force on the rail, respectively)
Maximum overturn coefficient* (ΔP/P < 0.9 in which ΔP is the 0.1638 0.1637 0.1637
difference between the dynamic and the static vertical wheel
load and P is the static vertical wheel load)
Maximum vertical acceleration*(m/s2) 0.823 0.823 0.822
Maximum horizontal acceleration of the train* (m/s2) 0.617 0.617 0.617
Maximum rotation angle* (Rad) 1.776E-4 1.767E-4 1.333E-4
Appearance better good good
*Only one passenger train on the bridge.

Table 3: Comparison of the three cable plane options

permanent and temporary piers with

spacing of about 60 m. The three steel
box girders of this side span are fabri-
cated and transported to the site separ-
ately. Their installation is divided into
three major steps (Fig. 17):

Fig. 15: Traffic load arrangement for the maximum elevation difference of adjacent rails
(Units: m)
causes difficulties in the design of the
cross beams. Four cable planes, instead,
are suitable for pre-stressed concrete
box girders because the cross girder is
a three span continuous beam supported
by the four stay cable planes.
Construction of the Three-separated-
box-girder in the South Side Span
The segments of the three-separated-
box-girder solution of the main span
and the north side span can be con-
structed by the free cantilevering
method as these segments can be trans-
ported beneath their final position by
ship at flood season. The south side
span is located on the bank of the
river, and the topography is much
undulated, so that the segments
cannot be transported beneath their
final position. The girder of this side
span is therefore constructed by incre-
mental launching and supported by
(a) The central box girder with part of
the cross beams is incrementally
launched into its final position.
(b) Temporary tracks and moveable
cranes are installed on the com-
pleted central box girder. The seg-
ments of the two side box girders
and the rest of the cross beams
are lifted near the pylon and trans-
ported along the completed
central (railway) girder by a
moveable crane.
(c) The two lateral box girders and
the rest of the cross beams are
lifted to their final elevation and
the cross beams are connected
after they arrived at their final
position by welding at a zero
stress state as the weld is located
at the end of the cantilever of the
cross beam.

After the side span is installed and still

supported by permanent and tempor-
ary piers, the segments of the central
Fig. 16: Exaggerated rotation due to eccentric traffic load for cable anchorage according to span are installed by the free cantile-
Fig. 12a vering construction method.

8 Scientific Paper Structural Engineering International 2020

 (a) (b)
Fig. 17: Construction sequence of the main girders of the south side span (a) launching of the
central box girder (b) lifting of the lateral parts (c) connection of the lateral parts to the
central box girder
Conclusions
In general, if the total width is larger
than 40.0 m and the critical flutter
wind speed is not the controlling
factor of the design, the cross section
of the main girder should be deter-
mined by the detailed comparison of
single box girder and separated-box-
girder. If the main span is larger than
1600 m and the critical flutter wind
speed is the controlling factor of the
design, separated-box-girder is an
effective solution. For high speed rail-
cum-road bridges with multi-track
and multi-lane, three-separated-box-
girder with a multi stay-cable system
is a very good solution. As the road
and the railway are separated by the
cross beams, the lateral wind forces
induced by the high speed train onto
the road traffic are very small and
wind screens can be omitted. The
decks for the road and the railway
can be steel-concrete composite and
Structural Engineering International
(c)
steel orthotropic, respectively. The
economy and durability is enhanced.
The railway and the road are separated
physically by the gap and the cross
beams. The boundary of maintenance
work and cost between the owner of
the railway and the road is very clear.
CSBs with three-separated-box-girder
can achieve significantly long spans
without compromising safety and
comfort for the passengers.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all suppli-
ers of the photographs used in the paper.
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