Bridges in Mangalore-Udupi-

Bhatkal section

N.S. Nampoothiry and S. Balakrishna

There are 29 major bridges and 71 grade separators on the tensioned girders are used for these two bridges. The girders
Konican Railway alignment between Bhatkal to Mangalore. were cast in a casting yard set up at the Bombay end of Halladi
While the bridges in the Udupi-Mangalore section are already II and at Mangalore end of Halladi I.
completed, those in the Bhatkal-Udupi section are in the
advance stage of construction. The article highlights the broad Launching at Halladi
construction features of the major bridges in these sections. In view of the tight time frame for completion of the work, the
entire superstructure work was completed in less than a year.
In Karnataka, the alignment of the Konkan Railway passes The launching arrangement adopted was such that it
through Dakshinkannada and Uttara Kannada districts. Two facilitated speedy erection, safety and also economy in the
sections viz., Mangalore to Udupi (70 km) and Udupi to overall construction.
Bhatkal (72 km) are in the Dakshinakannada district. The
section from Mangalore to Udupi was completed in a period of In both the bridges, advantage of the land span on the shore
30 months and opened to traffic in March 1993. Works in was taken with very little bunding work. The launching
Udupi-Bhatkal section are also in an advanced stage of arrangement was independent of the earthwork in approach
construction. This paper describes the details of the major bank and all the operations were from top, using end-on
bridges in the above two sections. launching method.

There are 29 major bridges and 71 grade separators in these The girders from the stacking bed (at the natural ground level)
sections as indicated in Table 1. The total estimated cost of were moved using rollers, placed on channel guide to the land
these bridge works is about Rs 56.49 crores. span portion. The girders are brought into position parallel to
land span on the ground. Lifting of all girders are done using
A majority of these major bridges is having a standardised the stationary gantry in the land span ( first span).
span arrangement (mainly 22.8-m length). At nine bridge
locations pre-tensioned girders have been used, whereas Table 1. Bridges in Mangalore-Bhatkal section
posttensioned girders have been adopted at 10 locations. The Mangalore - Udupi- Total in Total
girder sections used are standardised by Konkan Railway for Udupi Bhatical Mangalore cost
similar spans. (For more details, please refer an article "Major section section -Bhatkai section Rs
bridges on Konkan Railway : Approach to design and (O.K. district) crores
standardisation" included elsewhere in this issue.) Major bridges 6 23 29 32.47

Among the bridges the works at Halladi I and II, Sesetha and Minor bridges 127 163 290 13.55
Madisala are worth mentioning for their special launching
scheme. The railway alignment crosses the river Halladi Road under bridge 5 16 21 2.50
almost parallel to the NH-17 crossing. However, due to the
presence of an island, the bridge is split into two as Halladi I (21 Road over bridge 22 28 50 7.97
spans of 22.8m) and Halladi 11 (10 spans of 22.8 m). Post
Total 160 230 390 56.49

CONCRETE BRIDGES 1
Figure 1. Sequence of launching operations for girders

2 ICJ COMPILATION
 Table 2. Pretensioning details
Type of girder I II III

No. of strands 50 62 62

Length of strand 21.4 m 21.4 m 21.4 m

Pre-tensioning force 673.4 t 820 t 820t

Elongation 14.7 cm + 5 14.7cm + 5 14.7 cm + 5

(maximum) percent percent percent

Debonding length 4 cables-4.15 m 4 cables-7.15 m 4 cables-7.15 m

8 cables-1.15 m 12 cables-1.115 m 12 cables-2.15 m

Upward deflection 10 mm 20 mm 20 mm
(maximum) of
girder after
transferring the
load to the girder

7. The girders are launched in the middle and then side

shifted.

8. Moving the launching girder to next span : Trestle support is

placed on the next pier. Rollers are placed on the trestle
supports. Rear leg which is temporarily fixed on the
launched span is released. The launching girder is moved
forward using winch.

9. Further span-by-span operations are continued as

mentioned above. On an average each span (three
Figure 2. Girder launching arrangement girders) was taking one week for launching and a
monthly progress of four spans was achieved.
The stage by stage operations are described below. Figures 1
and 2 show the sequence of launching. Advanced technologies have been adopted and a number of
innovations are made for the quick and speedy execution as
1. Launching of first span : Using stationary gantry the PSC well as to ensure safety and durability of these bridges which
girders are lifted one by one and placed in position. The are close to the sea coast.
lowering is done in the middle and then PSC girder is side
shifted. Pre-tensioned girders
Pretensioning technique was adopted by the contractor for
2. The launching girder is assembled and erected in the prestressing the precast girders which were steam-cured to
second span (As in Stage-I). The rear end of the launching speed up the construction. The 3-girder system is connected by
girder rests on the already launched girders of first span. end diaphragms and the cast-in-situ portion of slab between
flanges of adjacent girders.
3. Second span PSC girder are lifted using stationery gantry
and placed over the already-launched first span. High tensile steel (H.T.S.) strands are used for prestressing.
These are stressed against the end bearing structure in the
4. The girder is placed over an under carriage moving on a trough unit. Stressing is done with single strand stressing
trolly path moved using the winch. system - Tensacci, Italy. Breaking load of each strand is 18.738
tonnes. These are stressed to 13.2 tonnes.
5. The front trolly (Trolly No. 1) of the launching girder
grabs the front end of the PSC girders. The front trolley The superstructure consists of three 'T' girders connected
moves over launching girder with PSC girder hooked to together by in-situ diaphragms, and wearing coat. H.T.S.
the trolley. The rear end of PSC girder will be dragged on strands consisting of 12.5 mm strands were cut to required
the under carriage. length, washed with soap water to remove oil and were epoxy
painted over the debonding length before introducing in the
6. Stage-III : The rear trolley (Trolley No. 2) picks up the PSC cage.
girder and the girder is dragged to position.

CONCRETE BRIDGES 3
The mixing of concrete is done in an ELBA batching plant and Specimen is broken and water penetration depth is measured.
concrete is pumped into the mould. Concreting of one girder As per DIN specifications, the depth of penetration of water
takes about three hours. 18 numbers of plate vibrators are fixed should not exceed 25 mm for PSC works.
to the steel shuttering and two needle vibrators of 60mm
diameter are also used for proper compaction of the concrete. In addition to the various tests done for the materials used for
The quantity of concrete required for one girder is 27 m3. concreting, such as sand, metal, water, cement, etc. total
chloride and sulphate contents are also tested. As per IS: 1343,
Out of 60 test cubes taken, 30 cubes are cured in normal water the permissible limit of total chloride content is 0.06 percent. In
curing and 30 cubes are cured by steam curing. When the some of the tests conducted, the chloride content was as low as
concrete attained a minimum strength of 400 kg/cm2 (after 0.00009 percent. This was due to exceptionally good care taken
about 30 hours with steam curing) the force was passed on to for materials including water at the time of concreting.
the girder by releasing the end jacks.
Special care was taken to ensure sufficient cover for all the
Steam curing concrete. The minimum cover of 50 mm was provided.
Atmospheric steam curing was adopted to accelerate the gain Galvanised binding wires were used for binding
of strength of concrete products. After concreting the beam, it reinforcement steel.
was covered with multiple layers of wet gunny bags in order to
prevent the evaporation of bleeding water from the surface of Conclusion
the concrete. After initial set of about five to six hours,
depending upon the atmospheric temperature, curing was 1. With the proper selection and testing of various
done by covering the top of concrete with hessian cloth and materials and close supervision at site, very high quality
spraying water to keep the concrete temperature around 30°C. of concrete of the required strength and durability is
This prestreaming curing was continued for four hours. The achieved.
trough was then closed with steel covers and steam was
allowed to pass slowly. The temperature on the 12 2. With the adoption of steam curing for prestressed
thermometers fitted on either side of trough and on the top concrete girders the construction activities were speeded
were noted. The rise of the temperature inside the trough was up.
controlled at 10 to 12°C per hour. The steam curing
temperature inside the trough was maintained 60°C to 65°C for 3. By adopting special process of treatment for the
nine hours. After the completion of steam curing the reinforcement rods, the durability of the structure is
temperature inside the trough was brought down to normal at ensured as the structures are located very close to the sea
a rate of 10°C/hour (equal to outside temperature). with highly corrosive atmosphere.

Permeability test 4. By careful planning, optimal design, cost effective

Permeability tests are carried out on standard test cylinders as construction methods and speedy execution, maximum
per German specification DIN: 1048. Cylindrical spedmens, economy is achieved.
200 mm diameter and 120-mm high are prepared and after
normal curing for 28 days, these cylinders are subjected to
permeability test in special testing machines. Cylinders are
fixed in the machine and water under pressure is applied from
N.S. Nampoothiry, Chief Engineer, Konkan Railway
bottom as given below : Corporation Ltd., Udupi.
1 kg/cm2 for 48 hours S. Balakrishna, Dy. Chief Engineer, Konkan Railway
2
Corporation Ltd., Kundapura
3 kg/cm for 24 hours
(Source: ICJ December 1993, Vol. 67, No. 12, pp. 645-648)
7 kg/cm2 for 24 hours

4 ICJ COMPILATION