Geotest

New Railway Bridge over Umbeluzi River

• Location: Boane, Mozambique
• Solution: Bridges, Infrastructure and Transport
• Type: Railway bridges, Management and construction inspection, Roadways and railways, Management and construction inspection
• Promoter: CFM – Mozambique’s Ports and railways Authority
• Client: CFM – Mozambique’s Ports and railways Authority
• Scope: Structural and railway track design, Inspection of existing structures, Geotechnical, Drainage, Flood Protection and Hydrological Studies, Onsite supervision of works for rail track and structures
• Area: 2142m2
• Project: 2015
• Construction: 2015/ 2016
• Photography: Mota-Engil Africa
• Contractor: Mota-Engil Africa
• Dimension: 340m long, 60m max span
• Ver no Google Maps

The new bridge over Umbeluzi River belongs to the Goba railway, in Mozambique. This line connects the Maputo Harbour to the Swaziland, in Boane.

The existing cable stayed bridge, constructed in the late XIX century, presented several damages that compromise the its structural safety, namely: due to buckling effects on its chords, sabotages, collisions, foundations differential settlements and general corrosion.

Taking into consideration the necessary strengthening and repair works, it was decided to substitute the old bridge by a new one improving the line railway capacity to 27 ton/axes.

The new crossing has 340m of extension and is divided in 4 central spans with 60m long and 2 lateral spans with 50m long.

The deck is a continuous two-beam composite steel-concrete girder. The main girders have 2.7m height supporting a 6.3m wide platform.

The deck was constructed by the incremental launching method.

A new railway section with an extension of 1500m long was constructed in order to connect the Goba railway line to the new bridge.