CONDITION ASSESSMENT OF RAILWAY BRIDGES

Abstract

Bridges are the most important part of modern infrastructure development in this rapidly developing new world. Inspection of bridges is of paramount importance with respect to the safety of people and structures. Condition assessment of the safety, structural integrity, and estimation of the future life of such railway bridges plays a direct role in nation-building. The assessment of the present condition and state of distress of bridges leads to the determinations of problem areas which further entail repair strategies. The entire circle of condition assessment which starts with site visits, visual inspection, evaluation, repair strategies and final execution of the repair works leads to not only the bridge safety but also directly responsible for smooth desired functionality infrastructure operations. In this project we are carrying out condition assessment of Northern Railway bridges, which includes Foot Over Bridge, Road Over Bridge & Rail Over Road. This dissertation study is strectched over various railway bridges of INDIAN RAILWAY, specially of Delhi Zone. Close to 30 railway bridges were inspected to carry out the condition assessment. The railway bridges basically consisted of foot over bridges(FOB), road over bridge(ROB), and also rail over rail(ROR). In the current study we have examined 10 railway bridges for the dissertation part for which prelimanry and detailed reports are generated and are part of this study, However detailed analysis and more stress has been dwelled upon one FOB of Kishanganj site so as to carry out proper dedicated study.