au projet
The last segment is to be cast and launched on Bridge 08 of the Rishon LeZion–Modi'in railway, south of Tel Aviv, Israel. The COWI team has performed superstructure value engineering, detailed design, construction engineering, and temporary work design. This bridge features several unique aspects, including an extremely tight site plan, skewed substructure, twin edge box girder superstructure with an intermediate slab, and its partial location in a station, launched against the existing Rishon LeZion Moshe Dayan station.
The 3-span superstructure has a total length of 113.6 meters and consists of 8 cast-in-place segments, with a maximum length of 15.1 meters. The superstructure is cast in a casting bed that consists of two pile-supported caps with steel extraction rail and a system of retractable falsework on spread footings. A pair of Eberspächer launchers is used to launch the superstructure with a combined maximum shifting force of 24,000 kN. The superstructure is supported on launching bearings under each edge girder inner web, and the lateral position is controlled by a pair of lateral guides on the abutment and on the leading pier. The 26-meter-long steel launching nose was designed to accommodate the skewed substructure alignment and includes four splices, as the existing railway station is located only 6.4 meters from the last pier.
Due to the complex geometry of the superstructure and substructure, a detailed shell element analysis model was developed in SOFiSTiK for both the bridge itself and all temporary work elements to capture the transverse and torsional behavior of the structure during launching. The Construction Stage Manager functionalities for the incrementally launched bridge, as well as Design Elements for post-processing the shell element model results, were crucial for both the design and construction engineering of the bridge.
