Bridge over the River Worblen

Abstract

The Swiss roadway from Berne to Zurich crosses the Worblen river over a prestressed concrete structure which rests on the slopes of a railway embankment. The structure has five spans, of 40.1, 48.5, 60.6 and 52 ms length respectively, in the direction Berne to Zurich. In the horizontal projection the deck is curved, and consists of two hollow continuous box girders, with prestressed partitions. It rests on open columns which reach down to bedrock, after penetrating through a layer of clay of scant consistency. The fact that the structure rests on a slope, the poor soil conditions and the depth at which firm foundations are situated has led to difficulties, to overcome which detailed study has been necessary. Statically, the structure behaves as a totally elastic girder, since no permanent deformations take place. On loading the 21 ms wide deck (which is divided into two runways, each 8.40 ms wide, and two sidewalks) on one of its sides, the box girder on the opposite side takes up between 20 and 30 % of the moment due to the loading. A number of tests on scale models have been done, and these have agreed with the initial design calculations.