New bearings.
The Norderelbe Bridge is Hamburg’s second-largest cable-stayed bridge. It was built in 1965. Already in 1985 it was altered and upgraded to carry the heavily increased volume of traffic. Nearly 30 years later, due to the high traffic loadings, especially of heavy goods vehicles, the bridge bearings had become badly damaged and needed to be replaced.
The top priority was to ensure that the bridge remained open for traffic during the building works. Thus the hydraulic presses to raise the bridge had to carry not only the weight of the bridge, but also that of the traffic, a total of 300 to 500 tonnes.
On account of the bridge’s static system, with unfavourable traffic loads uplift forces could occur on some of the bearings. Since this situation could also not be excluded during the building works, the existing tie anchorings had to be rebuilt. This allowed the bridge to lift while at the same time being secured against any undesired lifting off.
The transverse fixings at the bridge ends had to be temporarily taken out of use and subsequently brought back into use.
The high traffic loads as well as the annual high tides in the Norderelbe have led to wear and tear on the bearing plinths of the river piers. On the west pier, remediation of the bearing plinths and emergency safeguarding against spalling of the concrete were necessary.
With its new bearings, the Norderelbe Bridge is now equipped for the future.
© BIN, BIN / LSBG, BIN, BIN, BIN
