Building a Train Bridge to Last 100 Years

India’s Manipur state is located in the beautiful lower Himalayan mountain ranges surrounded by green valleys, streams, and majestic waterfalls that provide a wonderful backdrop. Within this extreme beauty, however, there is very little that connects the region’s towns and villages to the state’s capital city of Imphal. The primary mode of transport is an aging 230-kilometer-long highway that spirals around hills with sharp curves and steep gradients. Therefore, the Ministry of Railways, Government of India, decided to build a 111-kilometer rail line that cuts along the steep hills to reduce travel time. The rail line includes a 141-meter-tall bridge in a very active seismic area with high-speed winds and rainfall totals of 3,500 millimeters per year. Indian Railways, a statutory body under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Railways, was charged with designing a rail bridge that could support high-speed and broad-gauge railway trains for the next century.

A Meticulous Design to Overcome Multiple Challenges

Indian Railways knew that they needed innovative technologies to overcome significant challenges at every stage of the project – from deciding on span configurations, foundation types, and designing the various bridge components to maintaining the lifecycle of the asset – to support high-speed trains traveling over the bridge. As a result, they needed to meticulously design and construct the bridge while considering all deterministic and stochastic loads to ensure safety over its lifespan. They also only had a limited timeframe to address these challenges and make decisions quickly and accurately.