QUITE A BRIDGE FOR THE BUFFALO. CONCRETE BOX BRIDGE ACROSS THE BUFFALO RIVER, SOUTH AFRICA

Details are given of the construction of the reinforced concrete box bridge being built over the Buffalo River in South Africa. Constructed of two independent box girders each carrying a footwalk and two traffic lanes plus an emergency lane, linked by a median unit, the bridge has five spans with an overall length of 293000 M. The two abutments are stressed to the mudstone rock by means of a foundation cast inside a Coffer Dam and connected to the rock by dowels. When it was found that the founding levels for the two rows of piles varied by 10 M, special chisels were developed to cut away the hard dolerite rock to form a base for the 1200 mm diameter cased piles. The 3.32 M long bridge segments are 3.5 M high with a top flange 13.06 M wide giving an average weight of 70 t. The segments are cast on site at the rate of one per day and are positioned on the cantilever using a launching girder. /TRRL/

• Corporate Authors:

  Pithead Press Proprietary Limited

  4th Floor, Wynrop House, 91 Mooi Street
  Johannesburg,   South Africa 
• Publication Date: 1976-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p. 20-25
• Serial:
  • Construction in Southern Africa
  • Volume: 21
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Pithead Press Proprietary Limited

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Box girders; Bridge design; Bridges; Construction management; Reinforced concrete bridges; Structural design
• ITRD Terms: 3474: Box girder; 3455: Bridge; 3666: Construction method; 9011: Design (overall design); 3638: Prefabrication; 4794: Reinforced concrete; 8103: South Africa
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Construction; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00147492
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Analytic
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 22 1977 12:00AM